Dirty Game
by CocoSushi
Summary: To Arianna, they were just a bunch of foul-mouthed schoolboys. To them, she was the Dean's stuck up daughter. After a bout of misfortune strands them on a deserted island, the boys are left to decide their own rules... rules that Arianna is forced to obey. Rated for dark themes and sexual content. This ain't your grandma's girl-on-the-island fic, that's for sure!
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** I should not be posting another story right now. After all, it is my junior year of high school (a.k.a. the crawl-under-a-rock-and-die year). Oh well, at least now I have an outlet for all my stress. That's right:_ fanfiction_.

Yes, this is another girl-on-the-island fic. I can't help the fact that these types of stories intrigue me. Plus, I like taking cliche plots and putting my own spin on them. You might have read my previous _Lord of the Flies_ stories, JLC and AEA. If you're up to it, you can look into those as well. I'd like to think that _Dirty Game_ will be much better.

IMPORTANT: this is story will be MOVIE verse! It's based on the 1990 film, so a lot of the events and character descriptions will be inspired by this and not the novel. Most people complain that the remake is nothing compared to the book and I agree. My reason for choosing to base it off of the movie is because I don't like changing classic novels too much, and the movie takes several liberties with the plot already. Also, it is modern, and I haven't written many stories set in modern-day.

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing that you recognize. I do, however, claim ownership to the OC, Arianna Lovejoy, and her father. Please don't steal them, because I will be very pissed.

I think I've rambled on long enough. On with the story!

* * *

><p><span>Dirty Game<span>

"The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness."

– Joseph Conrad

++ CHAPTER ONE

Even on a good day, Dean Lovejoy was not a pleasant man – although his name did suggest otherwise. For both the students and the staff, Fridays at the Academy, with the promise of the weekend lingering in the back of everyone's minds, were usually very wonderful days. On this particular Friday, the sun was shining brightly even though it was relatively early in the morning. The spring breeze wafted lazily over the campus, weaving its way in and out of the Dean's office window where Lovejoy stood, standing at attention with a straight back and his hands clasped neatly behind him. He showed no sign of appreciation for the mild April weather and instead gazed stoically down at the cadets who were positioned in straight lines on the quad, practicing their drills. The boys marched beautifully – halting at the same precise moment, turning to the side in unison, and swiftly saluting their commanding officer. But if Lovejoy felt a burst of pride of his students' achievements, he certainly did not show it.

Turning away from the window, Lovejoy sat himself in his intimidating, burgundy wingback armchair, which was located directly behind his large, uncluttered mahogany desk. His nameplate, which read "WARREN B. LOVEJOY" in golden letters, was placed front and center, ensuring that whoever sat across from it would exactly know whom they were talking to. A detailed desk pad calendar sat in front of him, full of his penciled scrawls reminding him of the next conference, the next staff meeting, and tomorrow's dinner plans. But to his right, in the seat of honor, was his collection of picture frames. Each showcased the same round-faced, tan-skinned girl at varying stages of growth. One was of her at the beach, two-years-old with pigtails, a bucket sitting on her head and a shovel at hand, her face hidden behind heart-shaped sunglasses. Another was of her and Lovejoy at Disneyland, waving from in front of Cinderella's castle. She was around seven at the time, happily perched on top of Lovejoy's shoulders.

The most recent photo featured a teenager posing in front of a Christmas tree. Her face had matured, now narrower and fixed in a more serious, composed expression. She had grown prettier with age, her beauty enhanced by her red velvet dress. It was this photo that Lovejoy held fondly in his hand, even offering it one of his scarce smiles. The pride he hadn't shown for his students was poring from every inch of his face as he looked at this photo. His heart filled with the kind of happiness that you can hardly explain, and yet he felt a pang of sadness. Perhaps it was because the girl in the photo resembled someone he knew way back when, someone he sorely missed.

Before the nostalgia could settle within him, Mrs. Bennett, the secretary, rushed into the Dean's office, looking both timid and slightly harassed. Lovejoy looked at her expectantly.

"Well," he asked impatiently. "What is it?"

"I don't know why – I've asked and she simply won't tell me – but she's come all the way here, sir," she told him breathlessly. "She's at the school!"

"What?" barked Lovejoy. "Tell me, who on earth are you talking about?"

Mrs. Bennett looked as if she were about to faint when she said, "Your daughter, sir. But she won't come up to see you."

* * *

><p>After drills, most of the cadets hung around the quad until classes started. Clumps of boys scattered themselves across the bright green, finely manicured grass. The largest group claimed the shade near the west entrance. Some sat on the base of the closest pedestal, some on the grass. The oldest boy was lying with his back propped up against the building, his t-shirt untucked, blond mop disheveled, and his military jacket slouching halfway down his arms. He was the alpha of the group for sure, his beta being the brown-haired young man next to him who sat with his arm propped up on one knee. The pair watched the group appraisingly, neither of them speaking.<p>

On this particular Friday, there was a new boy among their group. He was short, overweight, with round glasses framing his beady eyes. Not to mention that he sure liked to talk. The nicer ones had tried to introduce him to the others and make conversation with him, but quickly got bored with his monotonous dissertations. Due to their lack of response, the new boy fell silent, choosing instead to sweep his darting eyes up and down the quad. What he noticed, of course, was the very last thing he had expected to see.

"Who's _that_?" he asked, his mouth half-open in wonder.

The others turned to see what he was talking about. Across the immaculate sea of grass, a young lady could be seen going past the courtyard and out onto the quad. She wore a pleated skirt and a matching blazer that bore the crest of Maywood Prep, the prestigious all-girls' boarding school that was several towns over. Gray knee socks covered her long, honey-toned legs, which ended neatly in black penny loafers. She walked with purpose and grace – no, walk wasn't the right word – she practically glided. There was a regal air about her. Perhaps it had something to do with her perfect posture, or maybe it was just how she carried herself. But within seconds, she'd caught the eye of every single boy at the military academy.

"Oh, _her_," snorted the blond boy. "That's just Arianna."

"You know her, Jack?" questioned his beta.

"Yeah, a bit. But I wouldn't get my hopes up," Jack said to the new kid. "She's a downright prude. Not to mention, she's Lovejoy's daughter."

There was a collective gasp of amazement at this as the cadets all craned their necks to get a better look at the female stranger.

"She doesn't look anything like Lovejoy," one of them remarked.

"Maybe she's adopted," surmised the new kid.

"Nah," said Jack with a chuckle. "That's his kid alright. You see, when Lovejoy was young, he was already making his way to the top. Lieutenant Commander or something and he was only in his twenties. And man, he got around, if you know what I mean."

The other boys laughed and leaned in, eager to hear the rest of it, for the Dean hardly shared personal information any of his students.

"Anyway he was stationed in the Philippines for a couple years and while he was there, he knocked up some chick," Jack shrugged. "Guess she must have been a good lay because he married her and took her to the U.S. But then the girl died after she had the kid, so Lovejoy had to leave the army to take care of her himself. The government offered him a job at the Academy because they felt bad or something. He hasn't enlisted since."

"He lost his career because of that?" the beta cried out indignantly.

"No, Rog," he told him. "Because of her." Jack looked pointedly back at the princess-like figure that was steadily approaching the group, although she made no move to glance at them, let alone greet them. Not one to be ignored, Jack called out to her, "Playing hooky, are we, Arianna?"

Arianna stopped short, turning her head to examine him. "Oh. _You're_ still here," she began loftily, eying him with disdain.

Jack smirked, cocking an eyebrow up at her. "Miss me?"

Crossing her arms, she sent him a challenging smile. "I must say, Jack, I'm surprised. I thought Daddy would've put you in the state penitentiary by now."

"What are you talking about? I'm his star student," he replied sarcastically.

She took in his untidy appearance and scoffed. "That explains why Ralph is the Colonel, not you." Seeing Jack's scowl, Arianna was satisfied knowing that she touched a nerve. Looking over her shoulder, she saw Lovejoy stalking across the quad in their direction, looking even more frightening than usual. "Later boys," she said breezily, walking toward her father and bracing herself for the worst.

"What's wrong, Daddy?" she asked innocently. "Aren't you happy to see me?"

"Arianna," he said in a dangerously soft voice. "What are you doing out of school?"

"I ran away," she stated simply, placing her hands on her hips in preparation for a heated argument.

Lovejoy stared at her for a moment before sighing in exasperation, his hand coming up to rub his temple. "Wait for me in the front," he ordered her. "I'll drive you back to Maywood."

But Arianna remained rooted to the spot. "I'm not going back there," she told him defiantly. "You can't make me."

His face reddened slightly as he struggled to control his temper. "I am your father and you will do what I say!" he raised his voice, unaware that their argument had caught the attention of many of his students.

"No," she said, her voice surprisingly calm as she held his gaze unblinkingly. And for the first time, the resemblance between the pair was suddenly strikingly clear.

Taking a deep breath, he turned away from her. "Go to my office, Arianna. I don't have time for this right now."

She managed to hold her ground for a few moments before her bottom lip trembled and she dropped her defenses. "No," she whispered. "You have time to go to parades and conventions and golfing with the Secretary of Defense, but never enough time for me."

Tears springing to her eyes, Arianna stormed past her father and into the building, leaving Lovejoy watching silently behind her. Jack and his gang observed him for a long time before he noticed.

"What are you standing around here for?" Lovejoy barked at them. "Get to class!"

They all scattered after that, knowing it was best not to say a word. Soon, Lovejoy was the only one left in the green expanse of the quad – standing stoic and silent and very much alone.

INSERT PAGE BREAK HERE

Arianna was afraid of many things, but her father was not one of them. One of her biggest fears was falling into a dream that she couldn't escape from; that no matter how hard she tried, she would never wake up. The things you see in a dream, the people you meet, they're not real. They are illusions, symbols, ludicrous – call it what you will. The only thing in a dream that is real is the dreamer, who is left to her own devices in a world that is both volatile and unpredictable, a world where the game has changed and no one thought to give her the rulebook. If there was one thing Arianna was afraid of, it was being alone.

As she paced in her father's office, she noticed how dark and quiet it was in there. This was where her father spent most of his time, yet it still had the feeling that it had barely been lived in. Suddenly, she pitied her father. He was by himself for the most part, which explained why he was always so unhappy.

When she saw the picture frames sitting on her father's desk, Arianna frowned. The little girl in those photographs was from a different life. That girl was happy, and it had never taken much to keep her that way. But that girl was gone – all grown up now – and as she stared somberly at those pictures, at her younger faces frozen in a smile, all she saw were lies.

The door opened and shut behind her, but she did not turn to face her father as he walked briskly behind his desk and sat behind it. "Sit down," he said. When she made no move to do so, he hardly hesitated to repeat the command once more, only this time he yelled it. Arianna reluctantly obeyed, taking a seat across from him.

"I don't know where this attitude is coming from," he began calmly. "But if you explain yourself, I'll try to understand why." And still, Arianna said nothing, fueling her father's aggravation. "Go on," he said impatiently. "You were so keen to come all the way over here and you must have had a reason. So, go on – speak!"

"Are you sure you've got the time?" she answered sassily, taking note of his detailed calendar.

Lovejoy's eyes bulged with rage. "I will not take anymore of this disrespect! Now, if you don't feel like explaining yourself, wait in the front and I'll have someone else drive you back to school. I've dealt with enough of this for today."

"I'm not one of your students," Arianna shot back at him. "And yet you order me around as if I was one!"

"Perhaps if you actually listened –"

"No!" she screamed in exasperation. "You're the one who's not listening!" Tears flowing freely down her face, she allowed all of the words she'd fought to suppress over the years escape from her mouth. "Maybe it's easy to forget I'm your daughter. That's why you keep sending me away, isn't it? You want to forget about me. Why shouldn't you? You never wanted me anyways."

Her father, shocked and hurt at her accusations, tried to reach for her, but Arianna flinched and moved back in her seat. "Honey, of course that's not true!"

"That's a lie," she said between sobs. "I've ruined your life and landed you here at this dumb school. You hate it here and you hate me. But that doesn't matter because I hate you, too," she added before she could stop herself. "I hate you. I hate you!"

Not waiting for her father's reaction, Arianna fled from his office, not wanting to hear his answer.

* * *

><p>Dinner that evening was a quiet affair. They ate in the back bungalow on the grounds where Lovejoy lived during the school year. Both father and daughter were oddly formal to each other, having an unspoken agreement not to discuss their rift until the following morning. Lovejoy had phoned Maywood Prep, telling them that Arianna would not be returning for the next couple of days. He didn't ask her any more questions and she was perfectly fine with that.<p>

Arianna slept on the futon that night, thankful that she had remembered to pack her pajamas. She had been rushing before she left the school, grabbing whatever clothes she could fit into her backpack, figuring she could send for the rest of her things later. She hadn't really thought much about what would happen after she left, knowing that she had nowhere else to go but the Academy. Oddly enough, she liked it here at her father's school, where she spent spring break and Christmas vacation and some holiday weekends. When she was younger, she'd made friends with some of the boys. She had gone to the movies with one of them, although her father had hardly approved. Brian was his name and the date hadn't gone well. He'd had his mind set on making out with her and Arianna hadn't been so eager to oblige. Fortunately, he'd withdrawn from the Academy the following year for unknown reasons. Not that it mattered, of course. Arianna couldn't care less so long as she'd never have to see the insufferable prick again.

It took nearly an hour for the wheels in her mind to stop whirring, allowing her to go to sleep. For once, she wasn't plagued by nightmares or any nonsensical dreams. Instead, she had fallen into a blissful black void where she wouldn't have to face her troubles until the following morning. But unfortunately, morning came startlingly early.

When her father woke her up, it was still dark outside; the clock beside Arianna told her it was just half past four. He had shaken her swiftly, his voice sharp and urgent. "Wake up and get dressed," he told her as soon as she opened her eyes.

She looked up at him, bleary-eyed. "What's going on?"

"Here." He shoved a banana into her hand and quickly ushered her to the bathroom. When she'd stood there, still caught in a daze, he raised his voice. "This is an emergency, Arianna. You've got to hurry!"

The panic that momentarily clouded his normally serious expression finally registered. Knowing not to ask questions, Arianna splashed water on her face, ran her toothbrush inside her mouth a couple of times, and hastily pulled on her clothes. Grabbing the banana, she unpeeled and ate it as she bolted toward the school.

Out on the quad, the boys were dutifully lined up. They all seemed to be incredibly annoyed at having to wake up this early on a Saturday, probably thinking it was to be a surprise drill or something along those lines. After seeing her father act the way he did, Arianna had a feeling that it was not going to be anything of that sort; that it was going to be something far more horrible.

The grounds fell silent as Lovejoy came to view on the balcony that overlooked the quad. He appeared to be even graver as he cleared his throat to speak, his booming voice carried, as chilly as the spring morning. "I apologize for summoning you all here on such short notice, but in a situation as dire as this, such measures are absolutely necessary. At 0400 hours, a nuclear bomb was detected in Los Angeles." Arianna, along with many others, released a strangled cry. Several students who were caught mid-yawn stared up at the Dean in shock as he pressed forward. "Please, I urge you not to panic. The government will most likely be able to disable the bomb, but we are taking emergency precautions. In the case that the radiation spreads, the Academy will most likely be well within the fallout zone. However, we have several planes at the airbase that will be used in the evacuation process. Each division must follow its appointed captain, who will transport the division to the airbase and accompany the students on the plane. Gather around your captain now and he will give you the next set of instructions."

There was a brief moment of silence as Lovejoy stepped down from the balcony before the students and officers briskly went to follow the Dean's orders. Although there was panic evident in everyone's eyes, the officials were miraculously able to maintain order among the uniform-clad students. Weaving her way through the crowd, Arianna was quickly able to find her father, who seemed to be looking for her as well.

"Daddy – a bomb? I don't understand," she said to him, not bothering to conceal her fear.

"Go with Captain Benson and the rest of Division One. He'll make sure you're safe," he told her. He was calm, as usual, but the worry was evident on his face.

"What about you? Where are you going?" she asked, already afraid of his answer.

"I'm staying here," he replied shortly. "To help move civilians out of the city."

Feeling as though her heart was going to fall straight through her stomach, Arianna latched on to her father's arms. "No, Daddy! Can't they manage without you?

"It is my duty," he stated simply, gently releasing himself from her grip.

"Please," she cried, feeling her throat constrict, her voice breaking. "Please, you have to come. Daddy, you can't –"

Suddenly, he pulled her into a tight hug. "I would rather die a thousand deaths than lose you," he said softly in her ear. "Remember that, Ria."

The familiar nickname stirred within her a tenderness she hadn't felt in years, along with the bitter taste of remorse. "Daddy, I'm really sorry about –"

But before she could even apologize, he pushed her away from him and handed her over to Captain Benson. "Go, Ria," were his last words to her. "There isn't much time."

* * *

><p>The planes used to evacuate the students were much smaller than Arianna was accustomed to. There was only one section; no business or economy class. When she traveled with her father, they had always flown first class. She wasn't used to the tight seating, nor the moderate turbulence she felt whenever the plane changed altitudes. Feeling dizzy and claustrophobic, Arianna was thankful that it was Captain Benson who was sitting next to her and not one of the boys. At least he would forgive her if she threw up on him.<p>

"Don't worry, now, Miss Lovejoy," said Benson cheerily in his attempt to distract her from the waves of nausea that were violently wracking through her. "We should be landing shortly. Just a minor security breach, nothing out of the ordinary."

"Minor?" she replied weakly, holding her head between her hands. From what her father had said earlier, this situation did not sound minor in the slightest.

"Sure! We're just going to be circling over the open sea for an hour or so until we hear word that it's okay to come back. An hour, shouldn't be longer than that, you see." He sounded awfully confident about it, but Arianna wasn't that easily convinced. She closed her eyes tightly, wanting to sleep and wait for it all to be over. The boys behind her were getting restless and rather rowdy, which did not help to ease her worsening headache. If she had to listen to them curse and shout and argue for just a moment longer, she might as well rip her own ears off.

What was worse was that Jack decided to start up the famous Duckworth chant, only it was the dirty version. "I don't know but I been told," he bellowed. Arianna cringed even though he was sitting two rows behind her.

_I don't know what I been told_, the other boys echoed him.

"Korean pussy's mighty cold."

_Korean pussy's mighty cold._

Openly appalled, Arianna momentarily forgot about her dizziness, disgusted by the chant's lyrics. However, no one seemed to hear her gasp of indignation.

"Sound off."

_One, two._

"Sound off."

_Three, four._

"Cadence count."

_One, two, three, four. One two… Three, four!_

"I got a girl in Kansas city," Jack continued, smiling smugly when he noticed her squirming in discomfort.

_I got a girl in Kansas City._

"She's got freckles on her titty."

_She's got freckles on her titty._

"Sound off."

_One, two._

"Sound off."

_Three, four._

"Cadence count."

_One, two, three, four. One two… Three, four!_

"If I die on the Russian front…"

_If I die on the Russian front…_

"Box me up with a Russian cu–"

"Jack!" Unable to contain herself, Arianna whipped around with her knees on the seat, turning fully to face him so that he could see her revulsion.

"It's just a song," he said with a mocking smirk. "What, is it too much for your virgin ears?"

The others snickered cruelly and she ducked her head slightly so as to conceal the pinkness of her cheeks. "It's not my ears that I'm concerned about," she retorted angrily, leaning hard against her seat's cushioned backrest. "In case you haven't noticed, there are young children on this plane and you're just flat out corrupting them!"

"Hey, we ain't babies," one of the littluns cried out. There was a chorus of "yeah's" as the rest voiced their agreement.

"Lay off Arianna, you guys," said Ralph from the row opposite Jack. She beamed at him, glad that at least one of them was chivalrous enough to rush to her defense.

"Yeah, she can't help being a prude," jeered Roger, which earned a burst of laughter from the boys and a high-five from Jack.

Her head snapped up as she straightened her back to glare at him. "Excuse me?" she asked coldly, already assuming a combative stance.

"Well, after Brian told us what happened on your date," intervened Jack. "It would only make sense to think that –"

"_Oh_. So that's what _Brian_ said about me?" said Arianna, her eyes flashing, unable to quell the acid from her voice. "Well, let me tell you: the only thing that pathetic little weed will be hooking up with is his hand and nothing else!"

Captain Benson, who appeared to have tuned into their little exchange at last, looked at her in alarm. "Why – Miss Lovejoy! I would never have expected such crude language coming from a young lady such as yourself!"

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Jack and Roger tittering behind their hands, which did nothing to lessen her rage. "Captain Benson," she exclaimed. "Weren't you listening to them earlier?"

"Boys will be boys," he told her dismissively. "But you would do well to mind your tongue, Miss Lovejoy. I doubt your father would be pleased if he heard you talking like that."

Arianna bit back a cutting retort as she turned around and sunk sulkily down into her seat, wanting nothing more than to disappear. Sexist captain, sexist boys. They better land soon, or else she would be driven to insanity. Just as she was about to embark on a lengthy mental tirade on the injustices of being a girl, the plane gave a violent and unexpected lurch. Most of the boys were not wearing their safety belts and were then jostled out of their seats. Even Benson looked nervous when he stood up, saying he was going to have a word with the pilot. The plane shook once more, the overhead lights flickering off, adding to everyone's panic.

"What the hell was that?" yelled Jack above the rising commotion.

From the back of the airplane came a sudden explosion. Arianna was launched forward with a piercing shriek along with several of the boys. They were all rolling down the aisle as the nose of the plane plunged downward. She could feel shoes and elbows colliding painfully with her back. Amidst the chaos, she could make out the screeching sound of ripping metal as the left side of the plane split open. They were falling – rapidly, she realized – and all she could see was water.

A fragment of metal came hurtling into the plane's interior. Arianna saw it just in time; she ducked and covered her head with her arms. Behind her, she heard a loud groan as a body slammed down on top of her. It was adult-sized, telling her it had to be Captain Benson. Screaming, her hands flailed about as she tried to throw him off of her.

But it was no use. They were all piled on top of each other by now – a bundle of bodies hurtling toward oblivion.

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><p>AN: There it is, the first chapter. What do you think of it so far? Please review, because I'd love to hear your thoughts on it!

I should also add that the rating of this story will probably go up. It may not seem this way now, but DG will definitely be darker and more dramatic than what I've written in the past. Just be warned!


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:** Voila, the second chapter. Thank you all so much for your encouraging reviews!

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><p>++ CHAPTER TWO<p>

Her body was numb as she felt herself sinking lower and lower into the deep black abyss. She looked like a creature from an ancient myth, her dark hair swimming about her face with an ethereal beauty. Slowly, she opened her eyes. Above her, light danced in shimmering waves and shadowy figures drifted about her. Below her was cold, blank nothingness.

Adrenaline shot through her veins as soon as she regained her senses. Numbness gone, she realized her lungs were on fire. Kicking and thrashing, she did whatever she could to get closer to the dancing light. Arianna broke the surface with a choking breath. Around her, heads were popping up – two dozen children, floundering like fish in the water. Her voice joined theirs in a hoarse cry for help. Fear flooded through her the moment she realized no one could hear them.

Over the commotion, she picked out a voice yelling, "Get the raft!" Soon, she heard a whoosh of air as a sizable raft inflated behind her. She swam wildly toward it, struggling because her muscles had become exhausted from treading water. Once she reached it, she tried swinging over the edge, panicking because her hands were too slippery and she barely had the energy to do so. She was going to drown. The fog about them was so thick, she doubted they would notice if she did.

Before she could sink back beneath the surface, someone grabbed her from underneath the armpits and hoisted her bodily into the raft.

"There you go," said her savior, who was thumping her back as she leaned over the edge coughing up water, her breath coming in shallow gasps. "Just relax. Relax and breathe." Following his orders, Arianna expelled the last bit of water from her lungs and slowly felt herself calm down and her breathing go back to normal.

"Thanks," she said weakly, shakily drawing herself further into the raft. "I feel alright now."

Her rescuer, still rubbing her back, pulled her closer to him. "Are you sure?" he said in her ear. "Because I think some CPR will make you feel even better."

Arianna froze, recognizing that voice now that she was no longer dying. "For God's sake, Jack," she said, angrily shoving him away. "Can't you save someone without being a total prick about it?"

The moment she said that, her face took on a look of horror, realizing Jack had just saved her life and that she would be forever in his debt. Behind him, she saw the twins laughing at her expense. She shot them a look so dangerous that they quieted immediately.

"Guys," said Ralph wearily. "Stop… fighting." He was having difficult talking and bandaging himself at the same time. She noticed that his arm was red and swollen and he was trying to fashion a sling for himself out of his t-shirt.

"Here, let me help you." Arianna cautiously crawled over to him, noticing Jack's frown as she did so. She carefully wound the cloth tightly around Ralph's arm. He winced when she tied it in a secure knot. "Sorry," she said with a grimace. "Does anyone have a knife?" Grudgingly, Jack handed her his pocketknife and she used it to hack off the extra and wrap it under Ralph's injured arm and around his neck for support.

"Thanks, Arianna," said Ralph gratefully, flexing the fingers to test the injury.

"No problem," she replied, smiling shyly. She didn't catch Jack roll his eyes as he swiped his knife back from her.

Beside Ralph lay Captain Benson, groaning to himself and stirring feebly. Simon sat next to him, wrapping a cloth around his bleeding head. "Water," Benson cried suddenly, his hands lashing out. "Water!"

The littluns shied away from him, eying the captain warily. Roger looked at him with distaste. "What the hell happened to him?" he asked.

"A head injury," answered Simon quietly, not making eye contact with any of them. "It looks like a bad one."

"Don't take it," moaned Benson. "Don't take it. Don't!" He thrashed around violently, crying out to some unseen figure. The raft dipped sharply to the right and Arianna scrambled to put her weight on the opposite side.

"Someone, grab on to him! Quick before he flips the entire thing over!" yelled Ralph, who was using his good arm to restrain him. Jack pinned the captain's flailing legs to the floor while Roger pressed his weight against his chest. Simon remained by his head, comforting him.

"Everything's going to be okay Captain Benson," he said softly. "We're not going to let them take anything from you."

After a few struggling minutes, Benson stilled, falling into a state of unconsciousness. The boys relinquished their hold on him, struggling to catch their breath. Arianna watched the scene, her eyes wide-open in silent terror.

"Well, isn't this great?" she blurted out suddenly, releasing a wild, hysterical laugh that frightened the other children even more than Captain Benson had. "The only adult within a hundred mile radius is mentally deranged, we're stuck in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with no land in sight, not to mention I'm the only girl." Once these words escaped her lips, Arianna's hands flew to her mouth and she rocked back and forth on her knees. "Oh God," she moaned. "No, no, no… This can't be happening."

"Oh, suck it up," snapped Jack, his grip tightening on his knife. "Or I'll make you."

She turned on him, her eyes narrowing into dark slits. "You'll what?" she hissed.

"You heard me," he returned, his voice lowering an octave.

Arianna looked at him scathingly. "You think you're smarter than me, Jack?" she cut at him viciously. "Do you have some master plan to get us rescued? Is the plane going to fly out of the ocean good as new? Or will some magical island appear at the snap of your fingers?"

But Jack was looking past her into the stretch of water that lay beyond the raft. A broad grin broke out across his face. "Actually, Arianna, that's exactly what's going to happen. Look!" He pointed behind her and everyone whipped around. The fog had cleared, revealing a small, but most importantly, solid and tangible island. The boys cheered and energetically steered the raft toward it, all good humor renewed. Jack turned to face her, snapping his fingers and looking smug. Arianna scowled; she had nothing left to say.

* * *

><p>Dusk was already falling by the time the raft reached the shore. The boys all clambered clumsily out of it, eager to explore the strange little island that had become their temporary home.<p>

"Stay on the beach," ordered Ralph as he helped drag Captain Benson off the raft. "It's getting dark and we don't want anyone to get lost. We'll scout out the land tomorrow."

Roger noticed that Ralph was already assuming command and rolled his eyes. If anyone should be leader, it should be Jack, he surmised. After all, Jack was older and he was a much bigger presence than Ralph amongst the other school-age boys. If anything, they feared Jack more than they feared Ralph, and years of being a bully had taught Roger that fear and power went hand in hand.

"Can someone _please_ help me?" Roger winced at the sound of a whiny female voice. To his left, Arianna was attempting to exit the raft with her usual grace but failed in doing so, slipping over the side into the water. Jack sighed wearily before turning around and holding his hand out to her. Arianna only scowled. "By help, I certainly wasn't referring to you," she snapped at him, picking herself up and storming away.

Roger checked out her haughty stride, unable to suppress the naughty thoughts that were already forming. He greedily eyed the way her wet clothes clung to her skin, entranced by the way she ran her fingers through her hair before tossing it over her shoulder, using her hands to ring out the water.

"For a prude, she sure is hot," he murmured to Jack, who was also gazing hungrily at her slender figure.

Chuckling, Jack patted his friend on the back. "Give it time, Rog," he said confidently. "A few weeks on this island and little Arianna won't be a prude for much longer. I can promise you that."

* * *

><p>They had found a few supplies on the raft – a handy knife, a precious glow stick that reminded Arianna of a lightsaber, and a small roll of bandages, most of which they used to wrap up Captain Benson's bleeding skull. He had probably suffered some serious head trauma but Arianna couldn't be sure. She'd never taken any first aid class and looking at even the most minor of injuries made her squeamish.<p>

Arianna hated to admit that she would be next to worthless on this island. At least some the boys had once been boy scouts or had at least taken a couple survival classes at the Academy. They could probably withstand the elements longer than she ever could. Arianna knew she was spoiled and sheltered. She knew that she was little more than a stuck-up princess. Above all, she detested Jack for calling her out for being one. After all those years at the Academy, they'd developed a mutual hate for each other that suited the both of them quite nicely. It didn't help that Jack could practically read her like an open book, whereas she always had to guess what he was thinking. What she would give to know of his hushed-up insecurities and his greatest weaknesses. Maybe then, she could finally beat him.

It was getting late and the children were all drifting off the sleep on the beach, or at least, trying their best to. Rolling onto her side, Arianna attempted to get comfortable. She had never been camping once in her life and to her, sleeping outdoors was a foreign and unpleasant experience. Curling into a tight ball, she tried and failed to tuck her legs under her thin dress as a blanket. She later resituated herself on her stomach and only succeeded in getting a mouthful of sand. Spitting and muttering murderously under her breath, Arianna collapsed onto her back in defeat. At this rate, she would never get a good night's sleep.

"What's the matter, Princess?" she heard an all-too familiar voice croon. "Not the five-star hotel you're so accustomed to?"

Throwing her arms over her face to block him from her view, Arianna hissed back, "Leave me alone, Jack. I'm not in the mood."

He only sighed in reply. She listened as he shuffled around for a bit and soon, she felt some thick type of fabric covering her body. She raised her arms tentatively, seeing that he had generously draped his military jacket over her – whether it was out of the goodness of his heart or to shut her up, she couldn't be certain. But she sure wasn't going to admit that she was grateful for it.

"Jack," she called out, squinting to find his form in the darkness. She was startled to see how close he was to her, squatting directly at her side.

"Yes?" he asked. Even if she couldn't see his face clearly, she knew he was smirking.

"Why are you being so nice?" She hadn't meant to sound so accusatory, but when it came to Jack, hostility was practically second nature. After all, she knew him well enough to be sure that he never did anything for free. Every favor came for a price.

"You looked like you were cold," he said with a shrug. "Plus I couldn't stand your fidgeting." She stared him incredulously, which only made him laugh. "Don't look at me like that, Arianna. It was the gentlemanly thing to do."

"But you're not a gentleman," she retorted, already feeling the irrational anger that Jack never failed to trigger boiling within her gut.

"Why are you so pissed, Arianna?" he said impatiently. "It's just a goddamn jacket. If it bothers you so much, then give it back."

She was about to shout out _fine_ and throw the jacket back in his face. But she _had_ been cold and the jacket felt so warm. And for some reason, it smelled nice, almost like soap. It smelled like Jack. And it took one horrifying second to realize she liked it.

But instead of handing over the jacket at once, she wrapped it tightly around her. "You know what, Jack? I'll take advantage of this rare act of kindness and keep it. So… thank you," she added, almost as an afterthought.

Chuckling, Jack settled himself down on a patch of sand less than a foot away. "Anytime, Arianna," he said with a mock salute and turned his back to her. But without their usual banter, she was left feeling more perplexed than ever. Apart from the usual princess gibe, he hadn't ridiculed her in any way, nor was he expecting anything in return. He hadn't even mentioned Brian! Something was very wrong here, she thought to herself. He was planning something – something sinister. Ah, so that was the motive behind his generosity. He was just playing with her head.

Two can play at that game, Arianna thought with a smirk of her own. Reaching out, she gently prodded his back. "Jack," she whispered.

"What?" he grunted, not bothering to turn around.

"I also wanted to thank for earlier – for helping me onto the raft," she said as sweetly as she possibly could. "You saved my life."

"It was nothing," said Jack indifferently. "Now go to sleep."

Biting back a frustrated frown, she continued with the same gentle voice. "You could have let me drown, but you didn't. And that was really decent of you."

With a dry laugh, Jack finally turned to face her. "Look, Arianna, I hate you, alright? But I wouldn't just let you drown. After all, you're worth so much more than that." She couldn't answer him, and Jack wasn't expecting her to. There was something almost predatory in his eyes as he bid her goodnight for the last time, rolling back onto his side.

For a long time afterward, his words replayed over and over again in Arianna's mind. _What does that mean?_ She asked herself a countless number of times. She wanted to scream, but couldn't for fear of waking the others up. In her paranoia, it took her nearly two hours to fall asleep, knowing that the same thought would still plague her in the morning.

Of course, if Arianna had known that answer to her own question, she probably wouldn't have slept all night.

* * *

><p>Jack wasn't sure what woke him up that morning. It could have been the parched feeling in his throat or the panging ache in his stomach. Most likely, it was the unbearable tightening that was pushing against the confines of his shorts. Groaning, he tried his best to get rid of it before the other boys got up.<p>

He'd been having a good dream, even though he couldn't remember the specifics. All he knew was that it involved Arianna and a bed and a whole lot of nudity. This wasn't the first time the Dean's daughter made an appearance in one of Jack's fantasies. In fact, he'd been dreaming of her more often lately, especially now that he was older. Five years – that's how long he'd been at the Academy. That's how long they hated each other. But no matter how much they wanted to rip out each other's throats, Jack couldn't deny the attraction between them. Blame it on raging hormones or deprivation of contact with the female sex, but he wanted her, even if she was a prude. Maybe it was because of her purity that he wanted her so badly.

To his left, Arianna lay slumbering peacefully. Jack carefully crawled over to her still form, careful not to disturb her. His jacket still lay draped across her stomach; he grinned, seeing her clutch it to her with those slender hands. He could sense her frustration last night as she tried to work out his motivation for offering it to her. It made him want to laugh at how little it took to wind her up. For a few moments, Jack watched her face, his eyes tracing over her slightly open mouth, her dainty nose, and her long, dark lashes. Without realizing it, his gaze raked over the rest of her body – at her small breasts covered by the thin fabric of her dress, at her trim waist and the curve of her derrière. Her clothes had ridden up during the night, leaving much of her lean brown legs exposed. Jack swallowed hard and forced himself to look away before he landed himself with another morning glory.

God, he wanted to touch her. Just once to see what it was like. But if he did, she'd probably scream bloody murder, slap him across the face to conserve her dignity, and then accuse him of sexual harassment. Jack smirked when he realized the fat lot of good that would do. There was nothing to stop him here, really. No adults to intervene, no Daddy to step in to protect his precious daughter. He could make up his own rules – ones that even Arianna would have to obey.

A few yards away, Ralph was starting to wake everyone, yelling something about finding water. Jack, suddenly remembering his dying thirst, jumped to his feet and ran off into the direction everyone was heading. He'd almost forgotten about Arianna. Almost, but not quite.

* * *

><p>Glaring sunlight was the only thing that greeted Arianna when she finally awoke. For a moment, she thought she was back in her dorm room at Maywood Prep and had to blink several times before making of her tropical surroundings. Then she remembered the plane crash, which made her want to go back to sleep until it was all over. But what would she do once she returned home? Even if she did make up with her father, he was just going to send her away again, if not to Maywood, then to some other expensive boarding school. Arianna's heart felt heavier than ever when she realized that she might never make it home, that she might never see her father again.<p>

To think that if she hadn't run away, she would not have landed herself in such a sticky situation. Part of Arianna was glad she did, though. She would rather be stranded on a deserted island in the middle of the ocean than trapped in the chokehold that was Maywood Prep. It wasn't the school that was the problem; it was the girls. All of them were cutthroat savages at heart, no matter how well-bred they pretended to be. And Arianna, with her pride and refinery, was one of them.

But the sun was shining and the air was warm, and Arianna was not going to let her past dealings at boarding school spoil the rest of her day. She remembered that she still had Jack's jacket with her and tugged her arms through the sleeves, finding that it offered a strange source of comfort. Rising to her feet, she made her way down the beach, to where she saw Simon tending to the incapacitated Captain Benson. He looked up as he heard her approaching, offering her a small smile.

"Good morning, Arianna. I've saved you some water," he said in his customary subdued manner, handing over a hollowed-out coconut that was fashioned into a cup. She accepted it and gulped up the water greedily, not realizing how thirsty she'd been.

"Thanks, Simon," she said after letting out a satisfied 'ah.' Looking around, she noticed how empty the beach was. Besides Simon and Captain Benson, there were only a couple of the younger boys wandering around. "Where is everyone, anyway?"

"Ralph and Jack and some of the others are out exploring, but they should be back soon. The others are either fooling around or gathering fruit," explained Simon. Next to him, Captain Benson stirred and muttered some gargled and unintelligible ramblings. Simon shushed him, taking another coconut full of water and gingerly pouring some into the captain's mouth.

Arianna stared at the once confident grown-man, now reduced to a helpless toddler. "He's in a bad state," she said pityingly, even though she'd been wary of Benson after hearing his sexist remark on the plane.

"We'll manage," Simon said simply. Suddenly, Arianna felt her stomach rumble and looked down in embarrassment. "There are fruit trees if you go straight over there," he pointed behind him at the jungle. "You should be able to find it no problem."

Arianna smiled gratefully and headed off in that direction. At least someone on this island knows how to be a gentleman, she thought to herself as she weaved her way through the jungle, careful not to trip on the wild and tangled undergrowth. She heard the boys from several yards away and soon spotted a couple small figures high up in the trees, tossing down fruit for the others to catch. She saw Jack at the base of the tree eagerly biting into one of them, which made her mouth water slightly. She ran to join him, yelling up for the boys to throw another one down for her. Moments later, her hands were met with a roundish, unfamiliar green fruit. It could have been poisonous for all she knew, but she was so hungry that she could care less. Sinking her teeth into it, she found that it was still somewhat bitter, as it probably wasn't fully ripe yet. She ate it anyway and found herself wanting more. Closing her eyes, she savored the taste even though it was far below the standards she was used to.

"Satisfied, Princess?" Jack asked, amused at her antics.

"Shut up, Jack," Arianna replied with her eyes still closed. "You're ruining a glorious moment."

Jack chuckled and Arianna felt her lips curve up in a slight smile. She even found herself thinking that maybe he wasn't so bad after all.

"You know, Arianna," he drawled. "I've got a special fruit right here if you're hungry for another bite." And he gestured at his crotch.

Her eyes widened as she stepped away from him in revulsion. "You disgust me," she said, crossing her arms in front of her chest haughtily. Beside him, Roger laughed loudly, leering openly at Arianna. She glared at him to make him stop, but that only seemed to encourage him. With an exasperated huff, she shrugged the jacket off her shoulders and promptly threw it at Jack's face. "I refuse to accept any further act of chivalry if this is how you choose to act afterwards," she said, shaking her head firmly.

"Chivalry's dead, and women killed it," Jack dismissively replied. "Or have you not heard that one before?"

"Of course I have," Arianna shot back. "I would just like to think that it's not true."

"Why?" Roger asked suddenly. "Are you so fragile that you can't open doors for yourself anymore?"

"No, it's not that, Rog," Jack answered before she got the chance to. "Arianna just thinks she's too good for that stuff, isn't that right?" When he looked back at her smugly, all she wanted to do was slap that smirk off his face once and for all. And to her surprise, that's exactly what she did.

Silence followed after her hand made contact on the left side of his face, leaving a bright red mark in its wake. The sound of the slap had been so loud, freezing everyone within the clearing. After getting over the initial shock, Jack gingerly felt his cheek and moved his jaw from side to side.

"Don't pretend you didn't deserve that," she told him, unable to conceal a satisfied little smile. She had always been too afraid to hit anyone before, but she was glad she did, for that slap was a few years too late.

But Roger was not pleased. He took a threatening step toward her and it was all she could do to stare back at him steadily. "You shouldn't have done that," he warned in a low, dangerous voice.

"How nice," Arianna said sarcastically in reply. "You have your sidekick fighting your battles for you… Pathetic!"

Roger looked like he was about to lunge for her, but Jack was quick to put a placating hand on his shoulder. "Not now, Roger," he said, giving him a look that calmed him down instantly. Then he turned to Arianna, chuckling. "Well, well, Princess. Didn't know you had it in you."

"Jack, there are a lot of things you don't know about me," she said evenly.

He grinned at her response and said, "You're right, there are a lot of things I don't know about you. For instance, why the hell were you at the Academy and not with the other uptight snobs at that rich boarding school you go to?" It became clear that he had been meaning to ask this for some time as he and Roger looked at her expectantly.

Taken aback by his forwardness, Arianna lost whatever calm she had earlier and averted her gaze. As she was fumbling for an excuse not to answer, she realized why Jack had been so frustrating lately. Letting out a harsh laugh, she shook her head. "You're a piece of work, Jack. You know that?" she said dryly.

"And what do you mean by that?" Jack asked in mock seriousness, but Arianna could tell that he knew exactly what she was talking about.

"I mean that you aren't getting anywhere by trying to confuse me," she said heatedly.

"Who says I'm trying to confuse you?" he answered, raising a cryptic eyebrow. By his side, Roger's scowl slowly turned to a cocky grin. The boys exchanged a glance, frustrating Arianna even more.

"_What_ is with this back and forth between you two?" she cried out in exasperation.

"What back and forth?" Roger asked innocently. He looked back at Jack, who gave him a subtle nod, and turned back to Arianna, struggling to keep a neutral face.

"Right there!" she exclaimed. "You just did it!" But she stopped talking after they couldn't hold in their laughter anymore. _Boys!_ Arianna thought, mentally berating herself for being so outrageously stupid. Then she turned on her heel, intended to leave the clearing as dignified as she possibly could. But she couldn't get two yards into the jungle without having Jack and Roger catch up to her.

"Come on, Arianna. You know we were joking." Jack had tried to sound nice about it but there was a hint of condescension in his tone that she caught instantly. She had already had it with them, but they followed her for a good five minutes just to pester her even further. Arianna kept on marching forward, deaf to whatever they had to say.

But Jack was not accustomed to being ignored. In his annoyance, he grabbed her roughly by the elbow, to which Arianna responded violently. "Unhand me, you cur!" she all but screamed, when suddenly, a disturbance could be heard from nearby shrubbery. Jack let go of her immediately and ran to the source of the noise, sending her stumbling backwards into Roger. He had steadied her by the waist, his hands lingering a moment longer than necessary. However, Arianna did not take much notice of this, for she was distracted by the squealing black mass that was blundering about on the jungle floor. Jack stared after it, entranced, as it vanished into the green.

"A pig," whispered Jack, almost reverently. "Do you know what this means?" he said and looked back at Roger in excitement.

Roger's lips curved up in a broad smile. "_Meat._" Simply the sound of this one word was enough to make his mouth water.

"Oh yeah?" interjected Arianna. "I didn't know you had experience in catching wild pigs, Jack." She was still resentful that he had made a complete fool of her.

"Shouldn't be that hard," Jack replied. "After all, humans are practically born hunters." He pulled his pocketknife out of his belt loop and held it at eye level. On the shining face of the blade, he saw Arianna's reflection over his shoulder from where she stood, just a few steps behind him. He caught her roll her eyes in her reflection, which prompted from him a silent chuckle.

"Whatever you say," she said indifferently, already heading past Jack as she made her way back to the beach. Roger sidled up next to him and the pair silently watched her walk away. All the while, Arianna was humming quietly to herself as she glided forward in her habitually regal manner. The thought of meat was far from her mind, for she hadn't realized yet that pigs were not the only creatures they would be hunting.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** I hope you're liking the story so far! Any reviews, comments, or suggestions are most certainly welcome. Oh, and I probably won't be able to update for a couple weeks because I have midterms coming up (someone shoot me). Don't worry! I'll finish writing the next chapter as soon as possible. Thanks again for reading!


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N:** I cannot thank you enough for your fabulous reviews! They seriously made my day. You guys are so funny and supportive! Anyway, I survived my exams with this story always in the corner of my mind. As I labored for long hours at my dining room table, committing months upon months of information to memory, I kept pushing myself toward the finish line just so I could go back to writing fanfiction. It's little things like this that make it all worth it in the end.

* * *

><p>++ CHAPTER THREE<p>

If it weren't for the conch, Arianna would never have made it back to the beach before nightfall. She realized a few minutes after she left Jack and Roger behind that the path she'd originally taken was nowhere in sight and that she was absolutely clueless as to where she was going. Thankfully, she'd heard the conch before she started screaming for help in her panic. Just another helpless princess, she thought with a rueful sigh, following the source of the noise.

Ralph was waiting at the beach where they'd slept the previous night. He was holding the conch to his lips and blowing into it forcefully. Arianna noticed how the boys, just like herself, had all stumbled out of the water or the jungle, dropping whatever they had been doing to join Ralph. It was like they were programmed to answer his call, as if it were a school bell or a whistle.

As she was one of the first to arrive, Arianna situated herself on a low-lying tree branch that gave her a decent view of the boy with the conch. She smiled appreciatively to herself, her gaze wandering up and down his shirtless body. She would definitely admit to having a tiny crush on Ralph, although she knew she was one of many other girls who did. It was not long after he'd first enrolled at the Academy when he began surpassing everyone's expectations. Now, he was only fifteen, already a Colonel and at the top of his class. Ralph was one of her father's prized students, and she knew that he would never object to her dating him. But all she and Ralph had shared in the past were a few polite and impersonal conversations because she'd been too timid to say anything else. Maybe she could change that.

"Hi Arianna," said the bespectacled boy she'd seen on the plane. He had stepped abruptly in front of her, unintentionally shielding Ralph from her with his rotund body.

"Hello," she said, forcing a small grin. She felt a twinge of annoyance, as he was taking away an important part of her 'Ralph time.'

"You're the Dean's daughter, right?" he asked, and she nodded weakly, not sure where this was going. "That's good. I've heard a lot about you," he continued in somewhat pedantic tone. "When they told me, I didn't believe them at first because you don't resemble Lovejoy at all."

"Yes, well, my mother was from the Philippines," Arianna answered as pleasantly as possibly, already bored of this conversation.

He nodded enthusiastically. "I know, Jack was telling us the other day –"

"Wait," she said suddenly. "Jack told you that?" If Jack was telling tales about her, chances were that he put his own spin on things. He wouldn't have portrayed her in a good light, that's for sure.

"Yeah, he told us all about how your dad was stationed in the Philippines and he met your mother and brought her to America," the boy went on, as if practicing for an oral presentation. "Then after your mother died, he had to take care of you so he quit the army and since then, he's been working at the Academy. How did your mom die, anyway?" he asked casually, completely unaware of the topic's sensitivity.

"In childbirth," Arianna said, the shock evident in her voice, which was just barely above a whisper. She hadn't expected what he said to be the truth, but there it was, dangling right in front of her face. And Jack had told them. He'd known practically everything! How he knew, she couldn't be sure. But now, she felt humiliated. Her family's history was private – separate from school, separate from the Academy. Now that Jack had told all the others, Arianna would never become someone apart from who she was at the Academy, never be someone other than the Dean's daughter. Jack had invaded her past and brought it to her present. He'd robbed her of her one secret and she hated him for it. She hated him more than she had ever hated anyone in her life.

Once all of the children were present, Ralph lowered the shell from his lips, giving Arianna another chance to admire his good looks, although she was far too shaken to fully appreciate it. "Whoever holds the conch gets to speak – that's the rule," he began in a calm, authoritative voice.

"Is this like assembly, sir?" one of the boys piped up from the crowd.

"Yeah, like assembly," Ralph replied. "Only that everyone who wants to speak gets to."

"But not before you get the conch," interjected the boy with the glasses. He stood and walked away from Arianna. She was glad because no longer had to answer his probing questions. The meeting continued but she was no longer listening. Her thoughts were too clouded with the same questions and feelings of guilt that often plagued her at night. Her father had never said outright that her mother had been too weak to have children, but Arianna knew. She'd had some condition and the doctors told her that if she went through with the pregnancy, she would probably die. But she'd wanted children so badly and she couldn't bear the thought of losing a baby. So she'd sacrificed her life for Arianna's, leaving a gaping hole in Warren B. Lovejoy's heart that their daughter could never replace.

As the assembly went on, Arianna tuned out the boys' laughter. In her head, she tried to imagine her mother's voice, which she had heard from a video that was recorded long before her birth. She knew her father had filmed the video. It was nothing special, really. They had been in the kitchen of their apartment. Her mother was sitting at the table, reading a magazine, when her father had practically shoved the camera in front of her face. He'd been making corny jokes and teasing her and acting completely different from the man Arianna now knew. And her mother had laughed at everything he'd said. Her laughter, so beautiful and far away – she could almost hear it.

A strangled noise escaped from her as she struggled not to cry. Clearing her throat suddenly, she tried to pass it off as a cough. Looking around, though, she realized no one had noticed; they were too busy discussing what were probably important matters and she hadn't even been paying attention.

"Can I speak?" the bespectacled boy said, taking the conch from Ralph. With his usual bluntness, he said, "The most important thing is: who knows we're here? Nobody knows we're here. They know where we were going but we never got where we were going."

"Where were we going?" one of the younger boys asked.

"That depends," Arianna chimed in suddenly, receiving a few looks of shock. She'd been quiet for so long that they probably forgot she was even there.

"What do you mean, Arianna?" Ralph asked, eying her curiously.

She blushed slightly, embarrassed at being directly addressed by the handsome, dark-haired Colonel. "I mean, the reason we were evacuated was because there could have been a bomb in Los Angeles, and if that's the case, we don't know whether or not anyone survived."

"So you're saying that we could be the last people on Earth?" Roger asked from where he stood beside Jack.

His one comment sparked several anxious murmurs and a few expressions of excitement. One of the littluns looked like he was about to start crying, while Samneric looked at each other and said, "Awesome!" The boy with the glasses looked absolutely infuriated. "That's scientifically impossible!" he exclaimed, and began to embark on a lengthy dissertation to prove his point.

"Well, Arianna, seeing as there's no one out there but us," drawled Jack, his voice carrying loudly over everyone else's, "it's your duty as the only girl to save the human race. I'm not lying when I say it would be my pleasure to assist you." He wagged his eyebrows at her suggestively.

Those who were old enough to understand the joke roared with laughter. Horrified, Arianna could only send Jack her deadliest glare. Hadn't he humiliated her enough?

"Calm down, cadets," Ralph raised his voice, restoring order once again. Once he got everyone's full attention, he went on as if nothing had happened. "I'm sure they're out looking for us. We should have a steady signal, like a fire, and we're going to have to keep it going all the time. And we're going to have rules."

"Can I have the conch," Jack asked, getting up to stand beside him. Arianna stared daggers at his back the entire time but he didn't once look at her. "Ralph's right. We've got to have a fire."

"Sir, are you the leader?" the littlun with the ash-blond hair asked.

"Jack's the oldest," stated Luke decisively.

"But Ralph's the Colonel!" said Pablo.

Most of the others voiced their agreement, effectively granting Ralph the leadership. "I guess you just won the election," Jack replied in a seemingly casual manner. But Arianna could sense the anger seething below the surface. This wasn't the first time Ralph had beaten out Jack for the top slot, and Arianna felt a sick sort of pleasure from seeing Jack fail.

"It doesn't matter who's in charge. We've just got to work together," said Ralph, his humbleness only increasing her admiration of him. "First things first, we have to build a camp." And he began directing everyone to a certain job. How he managed to keep in control the entire time amazed her. He was just so perfect, Arianna realized. These kids respected him and as long as Jack was around, they would never view her in the same light. All she could hear were her titles of "the girl" and "the Dean's daughter," echoing in her mind and it was driving her crazy.

While Ralph was busy giving orders, Arianna stood awkwardly to the side, unsure what to do. When he turned to her, she noticed him hesitate. "Why don't you help Simon gather branches that we can use to build shelters, Arianna?" he said in an obviously gentler tone than the one he used with the cadets.

She nodded gratefully because he'd given her an easy job that didn't make her feel entirely useless – a tedious sort of job that would help take her mind off of things. "Sure thing, Colonel," she said, giving him a playful salute.

He chuckled and patted her on the arm before moving on to oversee everyone else's activities. Arianna felt her cheeks grow warm but forced herself not to stare at him as he walked away. She turned around only to find Simon standing behind her.

"Ready, Arianna?" he asked, smiling shyly.

"Lead the way," she replied cheerfully, glad that she could always count on Simon to show her kindness. She rarely came across nice people these days, especially since she spent most of her schooldays in the company of pretentious teenage girls. And Arianna was well aware that she was giving herself too much credit. Deep down, she knew that she was no different from the lot of them.

Simon didn't take her too far into the jungle. There were plenty of fallen branches around that they didn't have to search very hard. It was simple, tedious work befitting the two outliers of their motley crew – Arianna, who was a girl; and Simon, who didn't seem to fit in anywhere. She'd often heard the teachers at the Academy discussing the young oddity, unsure of what to make of him. Her own father once mentioned that the boy had neither the right constitution nor temperament for military school but the board voted to admit Simon anyway. He was too quiet, the Dean had said, too weak-willed. Arianna disagreed. She saw something in Simon right away – a certain goodness that the other cadets hopelessly lacked. But there was little her father understood of goodness, since all the optimism seemed to have seeped out of him after her mother had died. Her relationship with him had been fine when she'd been too young to notice his emptiness. As she grew older, it became harder and harder for him to pretend that everything was alright. Arianna realized that her father was nothing but a hollowed-out shell, and for that, she pitied him.

It took her by surprise to see that the number of branches she and Simon gathered had grown quickly, for she'd been moving to and from their pile as a robot, focused by her function yet consumed by her thoughts. Simon hadn't said anything to distract her, and Arianna guessed that he was probably lost in his thoughts as well. She watched him fling another thin branch onto the ground, before looking up at her with a small grin.

"Hello," he said quietly.

"Hey, Simon," she answered, smiling in spite of herself. They must have been out here for a good ten minutes and neither of them had spoken a single word.

"It sure is hot," he noted, glancing up at the cloudless sky.

"Well, it is the tropics," Arianna said, laughing awkwardly. There had been something else lingering on her tongue and he sensed it right away.

Simon paused then, as if debating whether or not to ask her a question. "Is there something on your mind?" he said a little hesitantly.

"I suppose there is," she said, slightly taken aback. She stood there for a moment, wondering how to word what she was about to say. "Uh, Simon, do the other boys… talk about me, by any chance?" she finished haltingly.

"Sometimes they do," Simon replied unblinkingly. He had stopped collecting branches by then and looked at her thoughtfully.

"What do they say?" Arianna asked, intrigued.

"It depends. Most of them say that you're pretty," he said with a shrug. "Jack's the one who talks about you the most though, however, a lot of the things he says aren't very nice. He and Roger stare at you a lot. I've noticed them looking."

Arianna gagged visibly, not wanting to think about those two idiots watching her every move. Besides, most of what Simon said she knew already. There was one more thing she needed to ask. "What about Ralph?" she said as nonchalantly as possible. "Does he ever talk about me?"

Simon frowned, trying to remember. "No, not really," he said honestly. "He never talks about girls a lot, but he's always writing to this one girl in his hometown. He hasn't really said much, but I think he really likes her." Then he looked at her curiously. "Why? Do you like Ralph?"

Blushing, she shook her head forcefully. "No, I don't. I was just wondering that's all." She smiled unconvincingly, knowing full well that Simon didn't believe her.

"Come on," he said, wrapping his arms around one end of the pile and gesturing for Arianna to do the same. "Let's bring this back to camp."

Arianna obliged and together, they stumbled their way back to the beach. "Listen," she said, struggling to maintain her grip on the branches. "Don't tell the others about what I asked you, okay? I'm embarrassed enough as it is."

"I wouldn't ever, Arianna," Simon told her sincerely. "I swear it."

They shared a secret grin before reaching the patch of sand on the edge of the woods they designated as their campsite. Several boys were already starting to pound sticks into the ground to form tents and one of them motioned for them to place the set of branches in a corner.

"…Or it won't matter," Arianna heard the blunt, bespectacled boy from earlier say as she and Simon laid down their gatherings.

"What won't matter?" demanded Jack as Roger let him climb down from atop his shoulders; they'd been setting up the frame for the shelters. Neither of them had caught sight of her just yet and she planned to keep it that way, no longer in the mood for confrontation.

"Whether or not we get rescued," replied the boy with a shrug of his heavy shoulders.

"You better learn to live with it yourself," started Jack matter-of-factly, "because we ain't gonna get rescued."

This had caught the attention of the boys around them, whose heads perked up in interest. Even Arianna couldn't pretend to remain indifferent. "What are you talking about?" the fat boy stiffened every so slightly as he said this.

"Just being logical," said Jack, getting back to work. "A plane goes down in the middle of the ocean, there's no wreckage – who's gonna find us?"

The fat boy's beady eyes narrowed even further from behind his glasses. "Why don't you just shut up?" he retorted, and Arianna smiled in spite of herself. He was the only one who had stood up to Jack so far, and that earned him points in her book.

Jack raised his eyebrows as he resumed a challenging stance. "Are you telling me to shut up?" he asked sharply. There was a hush among the younger boys as they watched to see what happened next.

"What we need around here is positive people," answered the boy bravely. "Not people who are trying to scare people."

"What we don't need around here is you – shitbrain!" Jack countered, earning several laughs and a frown from Arianna.

"His name's not shitbrain," piped up the twins from off to the side. "It's Piggy!"

Jack roared with laughter and hi-fived either Sam or Eric – she wasn't sure. It didn't matter, for Arianna could not maintain her silence any longer. But before she could say anything, Ralph emerged from the woods and glared at all of them.

"Shut up," he ordered harshly as he led Piggy away. "Everyone just shut up."

Jack and his minions only smiled smugly, not looking the least bit apologetic. Arianna thought they were deserving of a greater punishment than just a biting remark from their leader. "You're a downright asshole, Jack, you know that?" she spoke up suddenly from behind the group.

They all turned around and snickered at Jack's new challenger. "So the princess has a dirty mouth after all," he drawled as he slowly approached her. Arianna didn't back away and forced herself not to divert her gaze. He stopped when he was only inches away from her face, so that all she could see was his eyes. She'd always thought he had blue eyes but she realized now that they were a dark, stormy gray.

"And all this time," he continued, "I thought you didn't have the capability to curse." There it was, that mischievous glint in his stormy eyes. He was so close to her; she feared that he could hear her heart hammering loudly in her chest.

"There are a lot of things you don't know about me, Jack," she whispered. He recognized this phrase from earlier and it further sparked his interest.

"You'd be surprised," he answered slyly, and this time, Arianna knew exactly what he was talking about.

"I know. You've already told them – you've told everyone, haven't you?" she hissed, so that only he could hear her.

His eyes widened in surprise at her scathing accusation. "What the hell are you talking about?" he demanded, and it was he who stepped away this time.

"Don't act as if you don't know," replied Arianna stonily as she pushed past the bewildered-looking boys in the background. She preferred to deal with her fury in private, thank you very much.

* * *

><p>The following morning, they lit the signal fire atop the highest hill on the island. It was Ralph's idea to use Piggy's glasses and the plan worked marvelously well – too well, in fact. They could have burned down the entire place, having allowed the fire to engulf an entire tree in their stupidity. And while the boys scampered to confine the flames, Arianna could only stare from a distance, relishing in the heat she felt on her face.<p>

Jobs were being passed around as well. Some boys attempted to spear fish, others tended to the shelters, and Jack insisted on being in charge of the hunt. Arianna was given the tedious task of collecting firewood, which she hardly minded. It was an easy job, and one she could do on her own, for she was losing her patience with the military boys already.

She'd been familiarizing herself with the geography of the jungle until dusk, picking up a few branches and such along the way. Part of her knew that she was stalling as she passed through the same clearing for the third time that day. She should have brought the wood to the top of the hill hours ago but kept searching for distractions. It was getting dark, which meant that it was Jack's turn to keep the fire watch, and Arianna was not ready to see him just yet. But as the sky grew darker, she was started to run out of distractions. Reluctantly, she made her own way up the grassy hill to where the fire sat, immersing the surrounding boys in an orange glow.

Jack, of course, was the first to see her. Being a boy as well as an idiot (to Arianna, those words were practically synonymous to each other), he had no idea what he'd done wrong and gave her the usual smirk. "Everything alright, Princess?" he greeted, only to be met with the bundle of twigs she had unceremoniously thrown at his face.

"Don't talk to me," she snapped and crossed her arms in front of her chest. She looked rather formidable indeed, with her face illuminated by the crackling flames.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" asked Jack angrily as he brushed himself off.

"Oh, leave her alone, Jack," said Piggy, who was frowning miserably into the fire.

"No one asked you, fatass," he snapped back.

"Jack's right," piped up Roger, who eyed the girl with interest. "Arianna could tell us why she's acting like an uptight bitch."

"I am _not_ an uptight bitch!" she exclaimed, not even hesitating on the curse word. She found that it was getting easier to swear now that there was no one around to reprimand her. It was a tiny freedom, but a freedom nonetheless; it felt good, even if she didn't care to admit it.

"Prove it," answered Jack evenly. Her lack of hesitation was not lost on him, and this little factor sparked his curiosity even more. But Arianna was not going to afford him the small satisfaction of responding and instead threw the rest of the firewood to the ground, then briskly retreating down the hillside with an audible groan.

She had scarcely reentered the jungle when she realized Jack had caught up with her. His hand enclosed around her elbow as he steered her to a stop. "Let go of me!" she demanded, her dark eyes flashing dangerously.

"Not until you tell me what's wrong," he shot back, tightening his grip.

Arianna winced and tried to push him away, but he held on fast. "I'm serious, Jack," she said, although with less conviction than the last time.

"So am I," he returned and turned her around to face him, forcing her to meet his steady gaze. And for the first time in his life, it seemed as though he wasn't joking, as though he really was serious. As though he genuinely cared. But Arianna wasn't going to give in that easily.

"Nothing's wrong," she told him impatiently. "Now let me go before I start screaming."

To this, Jack could only let out a bitter laugh. "Why, so Ralph could run in and save the day? That's what you want, isn't it? To be rescued by your knight in shining armor?" The concern was gone from his eyes, replaced with blazing anger.

"No," she sputtered, blinking furiously. "Of course not! Ralph's not – I'm not – I don't want a knight in shining armor!" Good thing it was dark, because Arianna was blushing shamelessly.

Jack looked at her in surprise, loosening his hold on her elbow. "What do you want then, Arianna?" he asked as gently as he possibly could. A smirk was tugging at the edge of his mouth and Arianna couldn't help but notice it.

Truth be told, she didn't want a knight in shining armor. She didn't want the usual storybook romance. Deep down, she knew that she didn't truly want Ralph and was only attracted to him by his looks, and because that was what was expected of her. What she wanted was adventure, a reason for her to abandon familiarity. All her life, she played it safe and so far, she was sick of it. No, Arianna did not want to be rescued from danger – she wanted someone to drag her right into the thick of it.

But instead of explaining all of this to Jack, Arianna choked out a feeble, "I don't know," and hoped that he would let her be. Of course, she should have known that Jack would never let her be. After all those years, he had never once given her peace. He always made it a point to infuriate her and she would always, _always_ respond to his provocation. Why, though? Why couldn't they ignore each other and, for once, leave each other alone?

At that moment, Jack could have accepted her answer and moved on. Arianna could have slapped him across the cheek again and walked away. But as was their habit, they forgot about all things sensible and stayed put. Then for no apparent reason, he dragged her closer and to both of their amazement, she no longer fought him.

"Jack…" she began, but for once, she no longer had anything left to say to him. No words at all. She was frozen with anticipation, and so was he.

"I think I know what you want," Jack murmured huskily as he drew her toward him, his gray eyes clouding with an emotion she couldn't place. "I think I know what we both want."

Without warning, his head dipped down and he engaged her in a heated kiss. Arianna was caught off guard so that for several seconds, she had no idea how to react. His lips felt so warm and foreign on hers, and yet, she found herself kissing him back. Her mind was screaming a million different things at once, _this is wrong_ and _what the hell do you think you're doing? _were among them. But when Jack relinquished his hold on her elbow and moved his hand to cup the base of her head, the voices were silenced entirely, chased away by the desire to get closer, to deepen the kiss.

Overwhelmed by her desire, Arianna wrapped her arms around his neck to minimize the distance between them. Encouraged by her response, Jack backed her into a nearby tree; the impact momentarily stunned her, allowing her to regain her senses. The action was so smooth and well executed, making Arianna wonder if he'd planning to do this for a long time. With her trapped between his body and the tree, Jack took this opportunity to lower his head even further, planting kisses along her neck. She felt him tug at the sleeve of her dress so that it slipped off over her shoulder. The panic set in the moment she felt his teeth scrape her collarbone. _No_, her mind was telling her. _No, no, no, no, no_.

"Jack," she whispered urgently. "Please, I – I need a break." And Jack quickly obliged, although he did not step away. Instead, he brushed her hair away from her face, chuckling deeply.

"Well, well, Princess," he said as she caught her breath. "Didn't know you had it in you."

"Am I still an uptight bitch?" she asked, hoping that talking would help her get over the bizarreness of the situation.

"No, but you can't blame me for thinking you were a prude," Jack told her honestly. Arianna stared up at him, at the moonlight reflecting off of his blond hair, and looked him straight in the eye. It was in that moment that she reached a decision about him, though it was questionable whether or not she was aware of it.

"I'm no prude," she stated firmly, as if she were daring him to claim otherwise.

Still unsatisfied by her reply, Jack leaned down so that she felt the warmth of his breath on her ear. "_Prove it_," he whispered, and Arianna smiled into their kiss, knowing full well that she would spend a good portion of the night proving him wrong.

* * *

><p><strong>AN**: Kinda juicy, eh? I've already started writing the next chapter so hopefully, I'll have it posted soon. Tell me what you think! Thanks again for reading and don't forget to review.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N:** Sorry for not updating in two months! I'm a jerk, I know. It's just that I've been super busy with SAT's, junior prom, and my stupid bridge project for physics. Anyway, I finally had time to finish editing this chapter today and I thought I would post it as soon as I could. I know I left you guys hanging with the last chapter and I hope this one answers all your questions. It's kinda funny that some of you thought Jack and Arianna did it. Clearly, there are some dirty minds in my readership :P

And thank you all for your patience and reviews! You guys make my day... Seriously!

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><p>++ CHAPTER FOUR<p>

The sun was barely beginning to rise the next morning and the first thing Arianna saw when she opened her eyes was a dark purple sky. It took her a while to make sense of her surroundings, as she still expected to wake up in her old school dormitory. It took her even longer to realize that her head wasn't resting on a pillow, but a bare human chest. She looked down in horror to see that she was half-draped across Jack's body, their legs entwined on the ground, his arms wrapped possessively around her waist. Images from the previous evening burned in her mind and her face reddened from the very thought of it.

"Jack," she hissed, her voice hoarse from sleeping. "Wake up, Jack. Wake up!" And she lightly slapped his face for good measure.

He blinked several times in confusion. "Wuzgoinon?" he asked drowsily, already starting to sink back into a state of unconsciousness. Arianna gave him another slap but this time, he registered her existence. "Would you cut it out?" he began angrily. Then he realized who was talking to. "Oh, right. Morning, Arianna," he said, grinning cheekily.

"We have to leave before somebody sees us," she said, too embarrassed to meet his gaze. She disentangled herself from him, but before she could get to her feet, Jack pulled her right back down on top of him

"Five more minutes," he murmured, weaving his hands through her curtain of long, dark hair and meeting her lips for another kiss.

"Not now, Jack," she whispered as she pulled away, her eyes wildly scanning the clearing for potential onlookers. Things were so much different in the daylight.

"Relax, Arianna. Everyone's still sleeping," said Jack, abruptly flipping them over so she lay beneath him. He kissed her to silence her squeal of surprise; she didn't protest this time, instead resolving to throw caution to the wind. Something inside her changed because of what happened last night. She hadn't known what she was thinking when she decided to get with Jack, except that she hadn't been thinking anything at all. Not about the complications it could cause, nor about the possibility that the whole ordeal would blow up in her face. On the island, there were no consequences, no give and take. There was only desire for those willing to succumb to it.

Yesterday, if one of the boys told her that she would be waking up the following morning to a heated make-out session with Jack, she would have laughed in his face. Somewhere along the way, kissing Jack had become natural and exhilarating, and Arianna simply couldn't believe how long she'd been depriving herself of him. Strangely, it made her kind of sick, how much her body wanted him.

"I still hate you," she whispered as his lips eagerly sought hers. She hated how he could make her feel this way, how easy it was for him to turn her into someone she wasn't… Or otherwise, the very girl she secretly wanted to be.

"I still hate you, too," he breathed back as he adjusted himself to a more comfortable position on top of her. "Does it matter?"

To this, Arianna sighed. At some point, they had reached an unspoken agreement that this wasn't going to go anywhere. There would be no love letters, no courtships, no relationship-y things of any sort. The only thing they were allowed to feel for each other was lust, one of the seven deadly sins. And because of this, Arianna felt the bizarre compulsion to reconcile her surrender to temptation with a virtue, such as forgiveness.

"I'm not mad at you anymore," she confessed to him suddenly. Jack halted his incursion on her neck to look down at her curiously, bracing his weight on his elbows.

"Yeah, you never did tell why you were mad at me in the first place," he said, although he sounded impatient to resume their activities.

"I was mad because you told everyone about my parents – about how my father brought my mother here to America… About how she died giving birth to me," she managed to say, thinking it would be better to get this conversation out of the way.

This caught Jack's attention and he looked at her strangely. "I didn't realize it was a secret," he said, his voice oddly restrained.

"How did you find out about my parents anyway?" Arianna had to ask. Her father was a private man. He would not have trusted many people with the stories of his past – not even his own daughter.

Jack squinted, trying to remember. "I think I had detention, so I was mopping up the hallway in front of the teachers' longue. I heard a couple of them talking about it and I couldn't help but listen in. If I'd known that it mattered so much to you, I never would have said anything," he said sincerely. When he was apologizing, he somehow managed to look like an innocent little schoolboy, and Arianna knew firsthand that Jack was anything but.

"I don't like to talk about that stuff because it's personal, you know? So when I found out that you told that blasted Piggy all about it, it felt like an invasion of personal space," she told him.

He only smirked, his breath tickling her ear as he said, "You didn't seem to mind when I was invading your personal space just a few minutes ago."

He kissed her again, his hands wandering, but Arianna hated it when he got too fresh. The moment she felt his hand approach her backside, she shoved him away in annoyance. "You know, Jack, your sexual innuendo can get a little old sometimes," she snapped.

"Well, excuse me, Your Highness," he replied sarcastically, making a big show of picking himself up from on top of her just to prove his point. Arianna didn't say anything and rolled her eyes when he laid down beside her. An icy chill had passed over them, canceling any further notion of fooling around.

"So what now?" he asked, staring up at the purple sky.

"No idea," she answered, not liking the new awkwardness that was between them. Even when they truly hated each other's guts, things were never awkward. But now, after one glorious hook up, everything felt different.

"Do you regret it?" asked Jack with uncertainty.

"No. Not at all," she answered honestly, surprising even herself. Sure, she didn't regret it now. But something told her that she probably would in the near future. There was one last thing to say, only she wasn't sure if she should say it. She knew right off the bat that he wouldn't agree with it. Heck, she wasn't even sure if she agreed with it either. "We can't do this again," she told him. _There_, she thought. Now let him deal with it.

"What?" demanded Jack as he sat up in disbelief. "Why the hell not?"

Arianna hesitated, sitting up as well, running through all the reasons in her head. Because I don't see where this could possibly be going. Because I'm confused and I have no idea what I'm doing. Because I'm afraid of what could happen the next time, because there's nothing here to stop us from going too far.

But all she said was: "Because, Jack. Just because. Alright?"

"Fine," he said, grudgingly accepting it. Perhaps the reason he didn't argue with her was because he knew Arianna had no intention of upholding her prior sentiment. After all, she'd just had her first taste of rebellion and there was no going back.

* * *

><p>"Where have you been?" interrogated Piggy the moment Jack returned to the hilltop. All of the boys were still there, although most of them were sleeping. Roger was one of the few who remained awake. He eyed Jack curiously as he came back to sit beside him but did not ask him anything.<p>

"Why do you care, Miss Piggy?" retorted Jack with his usual arrogance. The sun was coming out even further now, which meant that the next group would be coming in a little while to take over the next shift. He was eager for their arrival, for he was itching to leave so he could brag to someone about Arianna. Even though he promised her that he wouldn't tell anyone about their moonlight encounter, there was no way in hell that he was keeping something as monumental this from Roger.

"That's not fair," insisted Piggy. "Why should you get to skip out on your duties while the rest of us keep the fire watch?"

Seething, Jack turned on him. This kid just didn't know how to keep his mouth shut. "What are you gonna do about it, fatass? You gonna tell on me to Ralph just because he's the goddamn colonel?" he mocked.

"No, I'm telling Ralph because he's the one in charge," continued Piggy, his round face turning red with anger. "He surely won't let you get away with slacking."

"_Let me?_" Jack bit out, his face calm and yet positively irate. He leaned forward to offer him his final warning. "Listen closely, Piggy: no one around here lets me do anything. I call my own shots, you got that?"

But to his surprise, the boy gave him a grim half-smile. "You go on believing that, Jack. It'll come back to you eventually."

And Jack could only stare at him, his chest rising and falling as he took in deep breaths. To his right, Roger did not dare move a muscle, but out of the corner of his eye, he saw that his friend's hands were itching to strangle the little smart aleck. They both knew that the time would come when they could finally teach the punk a lesson, but now was not the right moment. If years at the Academy had taught Jack anything, it was that patience paid off in the end. For a hot head, Jack certainly possessed an astonishing amount of patience, which was something he would be sure to use to his advantage – in more ways than one.

At the bottom of the hill, he spotted Samneric and a few others coming up to tend to the fire. He nudged Roger and the both of them stood up. "Catch you later, dorks," he said to the rest of the boys, sending Piggy a particularly threatening look as he started his way down the hillside.

Once they were out of earshot from everyone else, Roger turned to Jack with that broad, shark-like grin of his. "You were with her, weren't you?" he asked, although something told him he already knew the answer to his question.

"Where else would I be?" replied Jack, smiling cockily. As they walked back to camp, he told him everything, making sure not to leave out any detail of his nightly endeavors. He had gotten with a couple of girls that past summer, but Arianna was by far the best. The amazing thing was that she probably wasn't even aware of her appeal. Sure, she acted proper and righteous all the time, but Jack was able to see past that. She'd unknowingly revealed to him her vulnerabilities as well as the darker side of her personality. Right now, she was most likely feeling morally conflicted, and she thought she was making herself appear stronger by not giving in to desire. But Jack knew better. For a while now, he'd been guessing that this whole princess thing was just an act. After all, Arianna was practically trained to keep up appearances. Maybe she thought acting like Little Miss Perfect would please her father or at least impress the brats she went to school with. But she wasn't fooling anyone. Anyway, she sure wasn't fooling Jack. Maybe he was just good at reading people, but Jack was often amazed at her predictability… Except for that moment this morning when she brought up her parents.

Jack had been telling the truth when he told her about how he came to hear of her family's tragic backstory. He hadn't really thought much of it when he passed it on to the rest of the boys. He just felt like dishing some dirt, and he certainly hadn't expected Arianna to be around long enough for kids to question her about it. While it did explain why she'd been acting exceptionally hostile as of late, Jack couldn't figure out why her resolve had cracked so quickly.

When he brought this up to Roger, he dismissed it completely, saying, "Maybe she was bored or something and you just happened to provide the entertainment. Or," he continued with a suggestive grin, "maybe she's a closet whore. I mean, you never know with girls like her."

In his head, Jack disagreed. There was definitely more to Arianna's reaction than that, but he wasn't going to ponder it just yet. All he knew was that there was something else the Dean's daughter was hiding and perhaps, she was even more vulnerable than he had previously thought.

"Jack, I need to ask you something," Roger said abruptly, stopping in his tracks. He looked even more serious than usual, which unnerved Jack somewhat.

"Yeah?" he asked as casually as he could. He'd been friends with Roger long enough to know that he was anything but predictable. To be honest, that was one of the main reasons he valued their alliance. Kids feared his volatile mood swings, which gave way to some degree of respect – or their submission at the very least. Jack always knew that he and Roger made a very formidable team. They were among the tallest and the oldest boys at the Academy, and several of the younger cadets aspired to be like them. The look of admiration and envy some of them sent Jack whenever he walked past did not escape him. For Jack was acutely aware of the power he held over them, and he knew exactly how to use it.

Though Jack had never discussed it with him, Roger also knew all about his influence over the rest of the boys. That's why he'd followed him so willingly in the first place. Now that they were on the island, Jack should have been the sole authority, but that straitlaced Ralph had gotten in the way. Roger wanted to change that. He liked it here, away from all the rules and expectations of the Academy. He would do anything to keep things the way they were, and that meant helping Jack in any way possible. But in the end, Roger was not going to play the part of the trusty sidekick. He and Jack were good friends – and they always would be – but that didn't change that fact that his loyalty came for a price.

"Arianna," said Roger unsmilingly.

Jack frowned, his blond head cocked to one side. "What about her?"

"I want her," he answered with conviction. "You've got first dibs on her, of course. But at some point, I want her."

For several moments, Jack didn't know what to say. He looked pensively at the ground as he weighed his options, before nodding slowly, his face breaking out into a forced grin. "Sure thing, Rog," he told him. "We can definitely figure something out."

* * *

><p>Down at the bathing pool, Arianna was singing softly to herself as she washed up, blissfully unaware of anyone else's plans for her. She didn't fully immerse herself in the water, but scrubbed at her face, arms, and legs with the palms of her hands. She would give herself a proper bath at night, when there was a smaller chance that anyone would walk in on her. It was truly the first time since they'd crashed on the island that she felt happy. Now, happy wasn't the right word – she was practically ecstatic. In fact, she felt like she could conquer the world. After all, last night, she had conquered none other than the infamous Jack Merridew.<p>

Arianna tried to think of what the girls back at school would say if she told them that she'd gotten with a military boy. A year ago, she would have been exalted and envied. She would have spent the entire night recounting the event to her roommates, and they still would have begged her to tell them more. But due to the changing tides at Maywood Prep, that would no longer be the case. Arianna had been completely ostracized, her status tarnished beyond prepare. Things had become even worse after the winter break, and she'd seen no other choice but to run away. So she'd been patient, waiting for months before she could seize her chance. She'd stolen away in the dead of night, but not before she…

_No_. She squeezed her eyes shut. She refused to think about that accursed school and its insufferable students. She did not want to relive the exclusion, the feelings of loneliness that had overwhelmed her those long, dreary weeks. Instead, her mind shifted back to Jack, to his lips, to his stormy eyes, to his fair hair. Arianna was by no means enamored of the egotistical jerk. Under all of her hatred for him, there had always been a hint of longing. He was callous and crude. He was a delinquent and the bane of her existence. And because of all this, he was forbidden, unsuitable for a girl of her standing.

People used to always tell Arianna how demure she was, how innocent. She used to love their compliments. In fact, she was proud of it. But now that she was older, she was sick of hearing about what a good girl she was. It was like they expected her to be the paradigm of virtue or something. What was so great about being good anyway? Being good hadn't made her father take a second from his busy life to look at her straight in the face. Being good hadn't given her a single taste of fun. She had been good for so long and look where that landed her – eating lunch in a bathroom stall as the new school outcast.

Here on the island, no one expected any goodness from Arianna. As she splashed water onto her face, she realized the tremendous amount of freedom she felt. She could be as bad as she wanted and not give a damn about her reputation. For once, she could do whatever the hell she wanted. But right now, all she wanted was Jack, and she'd just closed the door on him.

It frustrated her to no end. There he was, right in front of her, and she'd told him that they couldn't hook up ever again. But something inside her, the part of her that still wanted to be good, reminded her that he was off limits. That he was a boy, and that boys only wanted one thing. And last night, as she laid with him beneath the stars, Arianna had briefly considered giving Jack that thing. But she knew in her heart that she would never be able to bring herself to do it, that goodness would always be holding her back.

* * *

><p>Several boys were already up and about by the time Arianna made it back to camp. A lot of them were roughhousing along the beach, even though she guessed that they probably had some sort of duty that morning, such as fetching water or picking fruit. She didn't say a word as she walked past, although some paused a few moments to eye her curiously. It must have been a long time since they'd last seen a girl, she reckoned. Heck, it had been a while since she'd last seen a boy, but at least she had the sense to not gawk openly at the lot of them.<p>

They're just kids, she had to remind herself. Arianna never really had to deal with kids much, as she was an only child. She'd never been a babysitter or a mother's helper or a camp counselor. Babies, as adorable as they were, frightened her to no end. What if she accidently dropped it while she was holding it? What if it pooped on her? What if it never stopped crying? In Arianna's eyes, babies were unremitting sources of migraines and excrement that could break at the touch of a finger. Toddlers and prepubescents – if they were easy-going and low-maintenance, maybe she could handle them. But if there were tears in their eyes, Arianna would be running off in the opposite direction. She couldn't help the fact that she was seriously inept at comforting children.

Heading toward the huts, she planned on napping to both catch up on sleep and avoid talking to anyone else for the next couple of hours. The notion immediately fell flat when a small hand tugged on her wrist. She looked down in surprise to see a little dark-haired boy whom she vaguely recognized. He was stick-thin and tiny, and his chocolate brown doe eyes peered up at her curiously, his mouth half-open with the beginnings of a question dangling from his lips.

"Oh! Hello there," Arianna said hesitantly. He continued to stare at her, giving her an indistinct jerk of the head in greeting. She could tell that he wanted to ask her something and waited patiently for him to do so. After a few moments, no question came, and Arianna was forced to ask him one of her own. "So, uh, what's your name?"

"Peter," he whispered, clasping his little hands together behind him.

"Peter… That's a nice name," she said awkwardly. However, her voice was gentle, and she could sense that the little boy was starting to warm up to her already.

"Miss," he said, a little braver this time. "Can I ask you something?"

Arianna couldn't help but smile at his admirable manners. "What is it, Peter?"

"Can you go with me to the bathing pool and watch me while I swim?" His big brown eyes looked up at her hopefully.

"Watch you swim?" she repeated, confused.

"Mommy said to never swim if there aren't any grownups watching me," he stated, looking proud that he had remembered his mother's rules.

"Oh, I'd love to, but I'm not exactly a certified lifeguard," she told him honestly, feeling horrible that she had to say no to his sweet, angelic face.

"That doesn't matter," he replied energetically. "I'm a really good swimmer. I won't drown – promise!"

Chuckling, Arianna patted his head. "In that case, of course I'll watch you swim!" She watched as Peter broke out into a broad grin. He grabbed her hand and led her over to the bathing pool that lay not far from the sand dunes where they held their meetings. Her heart swelled at the trusting look he gave her, even though they were basically strangers. With a face like that, how could she possible tell him no?

"Thank you, Miss," Peter told her as eased himself into the water.

"There's no need to call me 'Miss,' Peter," Arianna said with a laugh.

Confused, he peered up at her as he practiced his dogpaddling. "What do you want to be called then?" he asked.

"I should think that Arianna would suffice," she said patiently. In her head, she marveled at the boy's formality. Surely, it must have been due to the strict military school environment. Over the past few days, Arianna had noticed how most of the boys – even Jack – called Ralph "Colonel" or "Sir." They always answered to authority, since that was how they were trained. Girls, she supposed, were similar in some ways, although respect for authority was drastically different for young ladies than it was for the boys. But Arianna did not want to ponder that at the moment, for the politics of girl world never failed to give her a stomachache.

"Ah-ri-ah-na." He slowly sounded out her name, as if tasting it for the first time. For several moments, his mouth soundlessly repeated it to himself as he floated on his back in the water. "How old are you, Arianna?" he asked suddenly.

"I'll be sixteen in a few months," she said. Sixteen candles already! Arianna had been looking forward to her birthday for quite a while now. Sixteen meant getting her permit, which would bring her one step toward driving, or otherwise freedom beyond her wildest dreams. Once she got her license, Arianna would take off down the highway and go far, far away – far enough so that she could look over her shoulder without seeing all the things she left behind.

"Jack's sixteen," Peter informed her. "He's the oldest. He's even older than Ralph, who's fifteen. I think Jack likes you."

His last comment was so random, so nonchalant that it did not register in Arianna mind for a few moments. "W-what?" she sputtered, struggling to maintain her composure. "What on earth makes you think that?"

Peter shrugged as he swam about in circles. "I don't know. My big sister told me once that if a boy is mean to a girl, that means he likes her. And Jack's mean to everyone – but mostly you."

For once, Arianna was unable to supply an answer, but that didn't seem to bother him. Peter kept on babbling on as if what he'd said was perfectly normal. However, she only pretended to listen, her thoughts straying yet again to a certain blond-haired bully. She thought of his eyes, his lips, his touch. The gnawing within her stomach was back and she wasn't sure how much longer she could control it.

And right on cue, the subject of her daydreams sprinted into the scene – probably coming back from fire duty or hunting or God knows what! Jack had a pack of boys running behind him. All of them stripped off their pants and t-shirts within seconds before jumping into the lagoon in their underwear. Peter noticed their appearance and eyed them warily before climbing out.

"What's wrong, Peter?" Arianna asked him. "I thought you wanted me to watch you swim." It was an innocent question, no doubt – save for the fact that Peter would no longer be the boy she planned on watching.

"It's okay," he whispered hurriedly. "I don't feel like swimming anymore."

Unfortunately, Peter was unable to sneak away. Jack had already noticed their presence and was quick to holler at them from the opposite side of the bathing pool. "Hey there, Pete!" he said. "Making new _friends_?" He'd said the last word with a mischievous glint in his eye as he leered openly at Arianna. She noticed this and gave him a look that was clearly intended to shut him up. He swam over to them anyway, perhaps misinterpreting her message as a friendly invitation – either that, or he didn't care.

"Feeling alright, Arianna?" he asked as he approached the embankment where she sat, her legs dangling in the water.

Her heartbeat accelerated rapidly but she forced herself to lean back on her arms in what she hoped to be a casual, yet seductive position. "Could be better," she replied with a tone of boredom. "And yourself?"

"Not too good," he said, drawing nearer, his wet hair plastered to his face. Smirking, he used the embankment to support his weight, resting his hands on either side of her legs. "I have a problem, you see," he said softly, obviously testing her.

"Oh?" Arianna quirked an eyebrow in amusement. "What kind of problem?"

"It's really hot today, so I thought I'd go for a swim. Only the water isn't helping."

"And why do you think that is?" she asked in mock-curiosity. She decided to indulge him, just this once.

"No idea," he said, with a shrug. He looked her straight in the eye and she could have sworn his voice dropped down an octave as he said, "Maybe you and I can figure out another way to, uh, cool down."

With that, Jack placed a daring hand on her knee, which Arianna did not hesitate to slap away. "_Jack_," she hissed, blushing furiously. "Not here." She nodded pointedly at little Peter, who had been standing behind her shoulder, watching their exchange in confusion.

"What are you looking at?" Jack demanded irritably. Peter's eyes widened as he shook his head in fear.

"Oh, lay off him," Arianna shot back. "After all, you're the one who's harassing me – not Peter."

"That's not what you said last night," he muttered sourly under his breath.

Arianna cut him a warning look before turning her attention to Peter. "Go on and splash around for a little more. Don't let thugs like him intimidate you."

The boy still looked at the bathing pool anxiously. "I don't know… Maybe I'll just–"

"Go on and swim, Peter," she cut across him insistently. "Better enjoy the water while you can. You never know – we might be heading home any day now."

"Yeah right," Jack scoffed. The thought of home actually brought a smile to Peter's face. Trust Jack to be enough a jerk to knock the poor boy back down.

Arianna looked back at him in annoyance. "Excuse me?"

"You want to go on believing that little fantasy of yours, then fine," said Jack heatedly. "Don't come crying to me when we never get rescued."

She could only stare at him, trying to determine whether or not he was serious or if it was just another load of his typical BS.

"You know I'm right. Aren't I, Peter?" he turned on the kid, who looked like he was about to cry.

"I-don't-know," he said quickly, before running off for the beach without a single look back.

After he left, Arianna turned to face Jack, looking down at him in disapproval. "Why'd you have to be so cruel, Jack?" she asked him angrily, giving him a light shove.

"You don't understand," he replied in his defense. "The kid has to toughen up. The last thing he needs is someone like you babying him."

"Oh yeah?" she challenged. "And you're saying that ruining his hopes and dreams is going to somehow make him stronger?"

"Actually, Arianna, that's exactly what I meant," he said evenly, his eyes meeting hers for an intense stare down.

After several moments of this, Arianna sighed in defeat, while Jack grinned back at her cockily. "I don't get you," she confessed to him wearily as he climbed out of the water to sit next to her on the embankment.

"You don't need to," was his befuddling reply. He rubbed his hand once again against her knee, only she didn't swat it away this time. Her eyes fluttered shut as she felt the warmth of his body beside hers. She'd told herself she couldn't… Not again. "Come on, Arianna," he whispered, sending shivers down her spine. "What do you have to lose?" The way he said her name was as much of a prayer as it was a curse. She felt like a tightrope walker, walking on the brink of destruction. One wrong move and she could slip and fall and meet her doom. Or she could jump and welcome danger with her arms wide-open. Maybe that's what Arianna wanted: to feel the thrill, the rush, and only Jack could give that to her.

"Let's get away from here," she said suddenly. She couldn't possibly endure this agony for another second.

Jack looked at her in surprise, although a knowing smirk was tugging at the corner of his teasing lips. "But after last night, you said–"

"I know what I said!" she snapped impatiently. "I take it back, okay? I take it all back. Are you happy now?"

He chuckled to himself as he stood up, helping her to her feet. "I knew you'd come to your senses eventually," said Jack. He led her past the bathing pool and into the jungle, stopping once to look over his shoulder, checking to see if anyone else had noticed. And sure enough, someone had. From the opposite side of the lagoon, Roger met his eyes and he smiled slightly, giving him a single nod. The nod told Jack everything – that Roger knew exactly what they were sneaking off to do and that he accepted it. But hidden behind his smile was a warning. Jack left with Arianna knowing that he could have all the fun he wanted… Just as long as he didn't dare forget his promise in the end.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N:** Finally updated! Hope the wait wasn't so bad. I've been up to my neck with AP tests and lab reports and all the usual dilemmas. Don't worry, I'll spare you the stress rant... Anyway, thank you so much for reviewing! I'm really loving all of your comments because they inspire me to continue writing. I'll try to update more frequently from now on because I hate to keep you lovely people waiting.

IchibanSweetie: to answer your question, I based their ages roughly on the ages of the actors at the time, give or take a year (Jack 16, Ralph 15, Roger 15, Simon 11 - you can pretty much estimate the rest).

Before I forget, I have to warn you that the rating WILL go up - probably in the next chapter. So make sure you add this story to your alerts or something so you don't go looking for it in all the wrong places lol. Don't fret, dear readers, I'll explain later.

Now, on with the chapter!

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><p>++ CHAPTER FIVE<p>

"I think we've walked far enough," Arianna announced, stopping in her tracks. She wanted to make sure that no one stumbled upon them while they were, well, you know. She still found it important to make sure that the other boys saw her the same way as they did before. In her opinion, Snooty Princess was a far better title than Jack's Girl, and Arianna still wasn't sure whether she wanted to be Jack's anything.

She met his eyes from where she stood, just a few feet ahead of him. Her breath hitched in her throat as he stalked towards her like a jungle cat.

"Arianna…" He swiftly closed the distance between them, bringing himself just inches away from her face. There was no need for preamble, no need for pleasantries or the like. Whatever words they had for each other were swallowed in an unbridled kiss. Their mouths clashed in a battle that Jack had his sights set on winning.

Arianna winced as he pulled her firmly against him, not at all gentle in his actions. She wondered whether or not all of this was worth it, and it would not be the last time she would have second thoughts about their little arrangement.

But that notion didn't last long, for it had never felt so good to be bad. The bitter taste of adventure mixed with shame lingered on her tongue as his lips trailed from her cheek down to her throat and Arianna wasn't quite sure what to make of it. She let out an involuntary gasp as she felt his teeth tug lightly at her skin and the warning bells went off in her head. At Maywood Prep, she'd seen the easy girls sneak back into their dorms after a night on the town, smelling of hard liquor tinged with sweat; they'd had make-up smudged half-way down their faces and purple bruises painted on their necks. She tried to imagine herself in the same situation. Was what she was doing here with Jack any different?

Any further thoughts fell flat as Arianna let out a cry of pain. He'd been too rough when creating his masterpiece of a love bite so she pushed him away, holding a palm to her abused neck. "Just who the hell do you think you are?" she snapped. "Count Dracula?"

Jack could only laugh in her face. "Come on, Arianna," he said with a wave of his hand. "Don't be such a wuss."

Arianna blinked once. "You're calling _me_ a wuss?" she exclaimed, crossing her arms in front of her chest defensively. The nerve of him!

Rolling his eyes, he shook his head in disbelief. "You know, for a minute there, I actually forgot that you were just a fragile little princess." His words were carefully cut and cruel. They had hurt her enough to make her forget the soreness he had left on her neck.

Stung, Arianna felt tears well up in her eyes but she brushed them away before he took notice. She'd shown him just last night that she could be so much more than a stuck up brat. Why hadn't that been enough?

She realized then that she didn't give a damn about what any other boy in the entire universe thought, save for the shit-brained asshole that was standing right before her. It was the world's worst plot twist. It was the sickest kind of joke. Why God? She wanted to ask. What on Earth did she do to deserve this?

"Words cannot describe how much I hate you right now," she spat, her voice shaking with anger. She refused to cry, as much as her body willed her to. She wouldn't waste a single tear on scum like him.

"You think I care?" exclaimed Jack, throwing out his arms in exasperation. "You wanted this too, remember?"

"Yes, but –"

"_No_, Arianna," he interjected coldly. "You knew exactly what you were getting yourself into. It's not my fault you can't make up your fucking mind."

His words hit her like a ton of bricks. He's right, he's just so fucking right. But Arianna wouldn't give him the satisfaction of knowing it. "Shut up, Jack. Just shut up!" she shot right back at him, the words tearing through her lips. "Don't pretend that you know anything. You don't know the first thing about me!"

But she hadn't anticipated the arsenal of verbal abuse he had hidden up his sleeve. "You wanna know why I hate you, Arianna?" Jack retorted, his stormy eyes blazing. "It's because you're such a self-righteous little bitch who walks around with her nose in the air. You think you have all the answers. And you know what? I don't care if you get straight A's or have a million dollars in your bank account because underneath it all, you don't know _shit_. You play it safe because you don't know how to make your own decisions and the one time you do something you think you'll regret, you take it all back and make it seem like you're a fucking martyr. Face it, Arianna. You're a sad, scared little girl who would do anything to get a good lay."

The silence in the jungle was thick, choking her as the weight of the words piled up on her shoulders. His voice rung in her ears several moments after he had spoken like a great, vibrating gong. For a long time, she couldn't speak and instead stared back at his smug, pointed face. He was right, so fucking right – and he was waiting for her to crumble.

Just when Arianna thought she couldn't hold on any longer, she managed to say to him: "Fuck you, Jack." Not a scream, but a low, venomous whisper.

He looked back at her with a sardonic smile. "You'd like that, wouldn't you?"

They were back at each other in a matter of seconds. He roughly threaded his hands in her hair as he devoured her, slamming her into the nearest tree. Arianna needed more and met him with equally bruising kisses. His hands wandered over her body more than ever and she didn't stop him. She needed his touch, she needed to know that he was real. Hate poured out from every movement of muscle, from every breaking kiss, from every fiber of their being. Hate turned into passion, and they released it in the only way they knew how.

A rude hand found its way to her breast. Jack paused momentarily, feeling her stiffen. When she didn't protest, he clumsily unbuttoned her dress halfway and slipped his hands through the opening. His palms were cold, so cold; she could feel them through her simple cotton bra. What subtle curves she had were enough to elicit from him a quiet groan. Then suddenly, she felt something hard dig into her stomach. Her eyes hammered open, and she grabbed his shoulders in surprise. Her thigh unintentionally rubbed against it when she tried to inch away, her cheeks flushing tremendously.

"Fuck," Jack grunted, jerking back the moment they made contact. His face was red as well as he looked down in the direction of his pants. "I-I'll just…"

"Y-yeah," Arianna said quickly to save them both from embarrassment and he turned around to take care of his not-so-little "problem." While he was doing that, she re-buttoned her dress and fussed with her hair. Her mind was still rapidly whirring with everything that had just happened. She couldn't it believe it. She couldn't believe they just did that.

When he turned back to face her, he was smiling arrogantly – although his head was probably not as big as it had been before his bulging mishap. She stood before him with uncertainty, still trying to decide whether she liked the lustful way he was looking at her.

Then he reached out to her, brushing his thumb against her cheek, saying, "You're something else, Arianna. I'll give you that."

She didn't pull away, wanting to take a moment to relish in her victory. "Does this mean I win this round?" she asked in all seriousness. There was a strange smile tugging at the corner of her lips.

"Sure, Arianna," Jack agreed with a reluctant sigh. She could hear the whooshing sound of his ego deflating. "You win this round."

His unwilling acceptance was music to her ears. Arianna – one; Jack – zero.

* * *

><p><em>They know<em>. Arianna could see it in their eyes the moment she and Jack appeared for the fire watch. They knew what happened not long ago in the jungle; they could smell it on them. And this was the last place she wanted to be, open for viewing before their immature eyes. Jack had practically made her accompany him, so that was probably the point. Of course he'd want to show off his latest acquisition.

"Sup, Rog?" Jack asked, walking around the fire to sit beside him and steering Arianna along by the small of her back. The action didn't surprise her as it did the four or five other boys, who looked at the pair in curiosity; however, their silent queries for explanation went unanswered. Roger watched her wordlessly as she walked past. She noticed his eyes linger on the position of Jack's hand on her back before flickering up to meet her gaze. The moment they made eye contact, he smiled slightly – not an inviting gesture, but a predatory grin. She shivered suddenly and looked away, seating herself on the other side of Jack to be further away from his brown-haired companion.

It was so warm by the cackling fire that Arianna didn't even have time to regret her decision to accompany Jack. He noticed her relax and nudged her in the side. "See? I told you this was better than the shelters."

Arianna rolled her eyes. "We'll see in the morning," she replied, lazily leaning back against his shoulder. Jack raised his eyebrows, amused by her boldness. But he was never one to refuse a female's advances and looped an arm around her waist accordingly.

The boys watched this development with bulging eyes until one of them was brave enough to ask what everyone else was thinking. "What the hell is going on between you two?" a voice demanded. Jack searched the group to see who spoke, realizing it had been the small, mousy-haired boy with a narrow face sitting just a couple feet away.

"I'll tell you when you're older," Jack joked, his grip tightening around her waist.

Arianna felt her face heat up. "Nothing's going on between us," she said insistently. Mentally, she pleaded for Jack to divert all attention away from her, not liking the hot seat one bit.

"Nuh uh," the boy asserted. "You and the Dean's daughter never got along before. You said yourself that you hated her!" Then he looked sheepishly at Arianna, hastily adding, "No offense."

"I do hate her," replied Jack with a shrug of his shoulders.

The boy frowned in confusion. "Then why–"

"Does it matter?" he interrupted, sending him a look that silenced him instantly. Pleased with his docile reaction, Jack leaned back in contentment. No one else questioned them for the rest of the night.

The sky was black by the time most of them went to sleep, and before long, Jack and Arianna remained the only ones who were awake to tend to the fire. The temperature had dropped a bit and she rubbed her arms repeatedly to compensate for the chill. Jack noticed and repositioned her so that she sat in the "v" of his legs and wrapped his arms around her. It was a kind gesture – gentle even – but incredibly puzzling. Arianna knew more than anyone that Jack wasn't the least bit kind or gentle. Or maybe he was, but only when he wanted to be.

"Thanks," she said, smiling in spite of herself. Her heart was pounding at the intimacy of their embrace.

"No problem." He was literally breathing down her neck, and Arianna could tell that he was getting a kick out of this entire situation. A wave of tiredness suddenly washed over her and she yawned, settling herself against his chest and allowing him to rest his chin on her shoulder. As she moved to lean against him, however, her backside had once again brushed against his pelvis, causing Jack to stiffen behind her. A mischievous smile forming, Arianna repeated the motion until she felt his hands grip her hips firmly to still her.

"Enough," he hissed. She had to laugh at his pathetic reaction, hearing the awe in his voice as he pretended to chide her. "I believe I've had a bad influence on you, Miss Lovejoy."

Arianna giggled – she never giggled. It was like she was high on this feeling of invincibility! She felt so _bad_, and she liked it. She liked being able to lie in Jack's arms, to kiss him without it having to mean anything. There needn't be any logic, any excuse for their actions. It didn't matter what they felt for each other or what their parents might think. What they were doing was raw and primitive, to say the least. After all, it was just a challenge to see who could go farther, who could drive the other over the edge. It was as if they were playing chicken to see who could stand on the railroad tracks the longest while a train was hurtling toward them from dead ahead. This was a dangerous game that they were playing here on the island, but Arianna couldn't care less.

"Tell me a story," he said abruptly, causing her to look over her shoulder in surprise.

"What kind of story?" she asked incredulously.

"Tell me why you were at the Academy, why you're here at this very moment."

Arianna froze. Well, she certainly hadn't expected him to say that. "That's classified information," she replied stubbornly, refusing to tell him much else.

"Come on," Jack demanded. "You're going to have to tell me sooner or later."

"Oh, sure, Jack," she drawled. "What'll happen to me if I don't?"

She almost wished that she hadn't asked that. She could practically hear him smirking as he murmured seductively in her ear, "At the Academy, we're punished when we don't take orders from the commanding officer. And we wouldn't want that now, would we?"

She should have bristled at the implication that he was superior to her in some way. But she didn't. All she could do was feel the warmth of his breath on her cheek and relish in his closeness. Why did he have to be so damn intoxicating? "You're a terrible, terrible human being, Jack Merridew," answered Arianna, defeated.

"Does that mean you'll tell me?"

"What do you think?" she snapped, but there was compliance under the hostility of her words. Jack must have known this, but he tightened his grip around her middle, almost as if he thought she was going to run away. At this thought, she almost laughed out loud. They were on a freaking island, for God's sake; there was nowhere she could run to.

"I should start by saying that you weren't my first kiss," Arianna said at last, her face heating at this small confession.

"Bullshit," Jack proclaimed, although he said it with minimal conviction. "I bet I was better than that douchebag," he added, almost to save face.

"That's beside the point," she said dismissively. "And he wasn't a douchebag. In fact, he was probably the nicest guy I've ever met."

"Before you go on, tell me: what's this loser have to do with anything?" he said impatiently.

"Do I detect a hint of jealousy?" Arianna prodded, to which Jack grunted in reply. "Anyway, he has everything to do with it," she went on. "He's the reason I'm here. There's this girl, you see, Maureen DeWitt, who happens to be my roommate. She's rich and gorgeous with long, blond hair. Everyone at Maywood wanted to be her." _Including me_, she thought bitterly. The very mention of Maureen left a sour taste in her mouth.

"She sounds hot. I'd do her," Jack remarked just to provoke her.

Arianna rolled her eyes. "Well, she's an even bigger bitch than I am, so go ahead and have sex with her, Jack. I'd like to see how that works out."

"Oh ho," Jack exclaimed with a laugh. "Look who's jealous now."

"I was never jealous of her," Arianna fired back, feeling the anger rising within her. "She had everything she ever wanted in life, but I was never jealous of her. The bitch – she was jealous of _me_, Jack! I'd never done anything to her, but because I had the one thing that she didn't, she wanted to make me pay."

"Why was she jealous of you?" Jack asked. His curiosity had been fully sparked by now, and he was eager to hear the rest of the story.

"The boy I just told you about – his name was John. We'd met him and his friends downtown the first time we snuck out of campus, and we kept on going out to see them. Maureen claimed John, like he was her property or something. But when John asked me out, she went ballistic. She told me that I should say no to him because I was her friend. As if I was going to let her tell me what to do!"

Images of their first date flashed in her mind. A darkened movie theater, the feeling of his hand in hers. Her heart had pounded terribly from the thrill of breaking the rules, from the knowledge of having a dirty little secret. She had blushed terribly when John kissed her. _You're adorable_, he'd told her, chuckling at her inexperience.

"I take back what I said about doing her," Jack said honestly. "She sounds like a crazy bitch.

"That's not even the worst of it," Arianna continued, shaking John from her mind. "When she found out that I'd gone out with him, she got so mad. She yelled at me for being a traitor and threatened to tell the R.A. that I was sneaking out. Then she spread awful rumors about me around the school, saying that I was only _pretending_ to be innocent, that I was pregnant with the principal's baby and a lot of other bullshit. And if that wasn't enough, she lied to John to get him to break up with me. I don't even know what she said to him, but it worked. He hated me. Everyone at Maywood Prep hated me."

Her voice broke as memories flooded her mind. The judging eyes that watched her as she walked down the hallway. The hurtful voicemail John had left when he broke up with her. Maureen's smug little smile as she watched Arianna's world slowly crumble around her. Taunts of _slut _and _whore_ echoed in her ears as the tears she had suppressed for so long fought their way past her eyelids. "So you see, Jack," she continued as the tears carved a path down her face. "It's ironic that you keep calling me a prude, because it seems like you're the only one who thinks so."

Jack remained silent for several moments before letting out a low whistle. "Damn. And I thought guys at the Academy had it rough." When Arianna didn't answer, he turned her slightly to face him and realized that she had been crying. "Shit, Arianna. Don't get worked up over that whore," he told her with a startled laugh. "Bitch will get what's coming to her – mark my words."

To this, Arianna could only let out a deep chuckle. "She already has, Jack. I made sure of that," she said, her dark eyes glittering menacingly.

He raised a questioning eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

Arianna sighed, not proud of what she had done but not exactly ashamed of it either. "I was so angry the night I ran away from Maywood. I had to get out of there – I was just so tired of taking Maureen's shit. So I packed my bags and I was about to go, when I saw this pair of scissors just laying there on her desk."

Jack gaped at her. "You didn't…"

"I did," she nodded, unable to conceal the smile that was creeping onto her lips. "I took the scissors and I cut off all of her pretty blond hair. I was careful not to wake her up and she didn't feel a thing. But I was so scared that someone would catch me, so I ran. I just wish I could have stayed behind long enough to hear her scream."

The last sentence escaped her before Arianna could realize how sadistic it sounded. Jack couldn't answer for several moments and instead studied her intently. "I think might have I underestimated you, Arianna Lovejoy," he finally said.

"I told you that there were a lot of things you didn't know about me, Jack," she said to him seriously.

"Well, in that case… Do you have anything other secrets left for me to _uncover_?" he whispered suggestively, his hands straying to the buttons of her dress.

"Jack!" she exclaimed and elbowed him away, although she couldn't hide the smile from her face. It felt nice to be wanted – even if the desire was purely physical.

"Tell me one thing," he said, his mouth barely grazing the side of her neck. "Who was better – me or John?"

Arianna turned her head to face him so that she was mere inches away from his lips. "I think you already know the answer to that," she breathed. This time, she was the first to lean in. It was a brief kiss that they shared, a tender one; between them, it was the first kiss that wasn't about winning.

She closed her eyes when they broke apart before turning around to lean against his chest. "I can't go back to that place," she whispered as she allowed her tiredness to quickly over take her. "I can't ever go back."

Jack didn't speak for several minutes. By the time he opened his mouth, Arianna had already drifted into a state of unconsciousness. His next sentence was lost to her sleeping ears. "Don't worry, Arianna," he pledged to her still form. "You won't be going anywhere."

* * *

><p>"Can you check if anyone else is there?"<p>

"No, it's all clear."

"Are you sure?"

"Yup, I just checked again."

"Okay, I'm coming out now."

"Alright, Arianna. I won't look."

Tentatively, Arianna crept out from behind the thicket that had shielded her, as naked as she'd been the day she was born. Clutching her clothes to her chest, she tiptoed past Simon, who had his face buried securely in the crook of his elbow just as he promised. Placing her clothes strategically at the edge of the bathing pool, she eased herself into the water as quickly as possible. Standing straight up and down, the water came up a little past her shoulders and adequately hid her female attributes from view.

"You can look now," Arianna called to the boy, who had generously offered to keep watch for peeping toms while she bathed. It was an ungodly hour in the morning and she doubted anyone else would be awake. Still, it was better to take extra precautions and Simon was the perfect one for the job. Honest and reliable, she always knew she could count on him to keep his pants in check. She guessed that he was probably only around eleven years old and besides, he didn't even seem to be interested in girls yet. It wasn't as if Arianna could ask Jack to be her guard; after all, Jack was one of the boys she needed to guard her naked self against.

At the sound of her voice, Simon hesitantly looked up, making sure that she was completely immersed before raising his head fully. "Uh, is the water okay?" he asked, his eyes looking anywhere but her face. Arianna grinned at his sheepishness, knowing it was an awkward situation for the both of them.

"The water's fine," she told him. Actually, the water was more than fine, this being the first real bath she had in days. After dunking her head beneath the water, she scrubbed all the grease and grime from her hair and skin. She hated feeling this dirty.

Jack's smell lingered on her skin. Just about an hour ago, Arianna had woken up beside him once again. She remembered how peaceful he looked in his sleep before she left him on the smoky hilltop, wondering if all this was becoming some sort of habit. She knew he wouldn't be waking up for a while now, but she felt his presence hanging around her still. As she watched Simon standing dutifully by the bathing pool, she wondered if the boy could smell Jack on her too.

"I haven't seen you around camp these past couple of nights," he said casually, as if trying to make conversation. But there was concern in his eyes as he added, "I've been worried – same with Ralph."

Arianna froze, rapidly searching for a reply. She wasn't sure what kind of reaction Simon had been looking for when he mentioned Ralph. Whatever spark there had been for the Colonel was missing now that she had Jack to fulfill her needs. She doubted whether Ralph even noticed her disappearance. If he really cared, he would have gone out looking for her. Although Jack was a complete asshole who frustrated her to no end, at least he noticed her – and that was more than she could say for Ralph, who scarcely regarded her existence. But Arianna knew she was being unfair, for Ralph had been busy running things on the island, which didn't leave them much time to get to know each other. Not to mention the fact that from the beginning, Arianna had been too occupied by her hatred of Jack to make her tiny crush on Ralph known.

"I've been watching the fire lately. Is that a bad thing?" she questioned coolly. Simon backed away, alarmed at the stiffness of her response. As he began to sputter out an apology, her cheeks quickly flooded in shame. Arianna would have never lashed out at anyone like that at home. Simon hadn't been trying to provoke her at all and she knew that. It made her wonder when she became so mean, or maybe she had been that way so long.

"I'm sorry, Simon," she told him gently. "I'm just tired, that's all." That was true, at least. Arianna estimated that she hadn't gotten more than four hours of sleep the past couple of nights.

But Simon didn't answer her. Instead, he sat himself near on the embankment – a good distance away, but still facing Arianna – and stared at her straight in the eye. "You haven't just been watching the fire," he stated, his voice was not accusatory but not quite serene either. His eyes were piercing blue and clear as glass, giving her the impression that she was being x-rayed. It made her cross her arms in front of her chest, fidgeting uncomfortably.

"I was too," Arianna retorted somewhat immaturely. She was being put on the spot by a sixth-grader and she didn't like it.

She noticed his x-ray eyes stray down to her neck before rising up to stare back at her solemnly. There was understanding in his eyes and she suddenly felt ashamed. Flushing, Arianna bent her knees so as to hide the hickey beneath the water. She recalled Jack's assault on her neck the previous afternoon, feeling like an idiot for forgetting about it. Terribly embarrassed now, she wished she could drown so she wouldn't have to face Simon for another minute. "Look…" she began, but no words came to mind.

"You don't have to lie," Simon said simply when she fell silent. "I may be young, but I'm not blind. I know Jack's the one you've been seeing but I'm not going to tell anyone about it. But he's not a good guy and you must know that." He looked at her in earnest, silently pleading for her to believe him.

"I do know that," she said slowly. She knew Jack wasn't good. He very well could be dangerous – but that's what made him fun. But how could she explain this to poor, innocent Simon?

"I know whatever I say won't stop you, but I don't want you to get hurt," he told her, seemingly wise beyond his years. "And he will hurt you, Arianna. I know it." It was true that Simon knew a lot of things. Arianna wasn't sure how he knew these things, but he just did. Her better judgment told her to believe him, but she had stopped listening to that part of her several days ago.

And so she didn't answer him right away, instead asking that he turn around while she dried herself off and redressed. As soon as she was fully clothed again, she said to him solemnly, "You're a smart boy, Simon – smarter than all the guys here put together. But I can't give him up. Not yet."

He was confused, but he requested no further explanation. Perhaps he knew that the more he questioned her, the more he would push her farther away from him, farther into the darkness. Call her a masochist or call her an idiot, but Arianna sure as hell wasn't done playing with fire.

* * *

><p>The ground beside him was cold by the time Jack woke up, which told him that Arianna had been gone for a while now. He couldn't help but feel a little disappointed before he realized he was acting like a pansy. All he knew was that he never wanted any girl more in his life, and he was almost sickened by it. Hell, it wasn't like he cared for her at all. It wasn't like he lov… He couldn't even say it. Screw love, screw commitments. What he needed was a good fuck and as of now, Arianna was the only person who could give that to him. Well, that's what he tried to tell himself – that Arianna was a noncommittal hook-up and nothing more. Jack tried to tell himself that he didn't care that another guy had touched her, that he hadn't been her first kiss. It doesn't matter, Jack reminded himself harshly. He <em>would<em> be her first, even if he wouldn't be her only.

He sat up and stretched, rubbing the tiredness from his eyes. The hilltop was still full of sleeping boys; only one of them was awake, and he was watching Jack impassively.

"Sleep well, Roger?" Jack asked cheerily, turning to face him. Roger shrugged, and tossed a few sticks into the fire.

"No. I couldn't sleep," he said simply with a shrug of his shoulders. "Especially not with her around."

"Oh?" Jack quirked an eyebrow, his body stiffening ever so slightly. "And what do you mean by that?"

"I kept thinking about her," Roger went on without preamble, his dark eyes shining red and gold from the dancing flames. "Thinking about all the things I want to do to her."

At this, Jack cleared his throat and stared uneasily back at his friend, struggling to keep his face calm. He wasn't sure whether or not to laugh, but judging by the look on Roger's face, he could tell that he wasn't joking. "Arianna tends to have that effect on people," Jack replied offhandedly, not wanting to continue their conversation.

"I was awake last night, Jack. I heard what she told you. She trusts you and she doesn't even know it yet." They met each other's gaze. Roger's eyes looked darker than they ever had in the past. "You can't keep her to yourself forever, man," he murmured, and Jack averted his gaze.

"I know," he answered hollowly. "Just give it time. Okay, Rog?"

"And how much time do you think?" asked Roger stonily, his face devoid of any emotion.

"As much as it takes," answered Jack firmly, letting that be the end of it. In a softer, more urgent tone, he added, "You're forgetting, man, that's she's still Arianna. She's still Lovejoy's daughter – even here."

Roger could only laugh, giving his head a slow, solemn shake. "Doesn't matter, Jack," he said, the fire hissing as he tossed it a log. "Not anymore."

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** So I should have mentioned this earlier on in the story but I wasn't entirely sure how the plot would develop. But now, it seems that there is only one direction for me to take (and no, I'm not referring to the band lol). Yes, I'm talking about a rape scene - it would be non-explicit of course and nothing too distasteful. As I hinted in the beginning, the rating will be changed to M. After all, I started this story with the intention of exploring the darker, suppressed side of humanity. I'll warn you when it will come up (from what I've written so far, I'm guessing it will be two chapters from now), but I wanted to give you all a head's up just in case.

I hope you're enjoying the story so far. If you have any comments/criticism for me, please let me know!


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N**: Rating has changed. This chapter is still fairly tame, but proceed the rest of the story with caution. Carry on :)

* * *

><p>++ CHAPTER SIX<p>

Ralph was pacing back and forth along the corner of the beach where they held their assemblies. The conch was held loosely in one hand as he contemplated whether or not to blow it. There had been a meeting just a couple days ago and it certainly hadn't gone well. He yearned to go back to the first few days, when the island was fresh and exciting and free to explore. With a cloudless sky and an open sea of possibilities, Ralph had felt like he was on a well-deserved vacation from homework and drills and the Academy. But nowadays, it seemed as though reality was catching up to him. All he did now was worry as he began to accept the possibility that they might be stranded here longer than any of them had anticipated. It was only a matter of time before they ran out of food. It was only a matter of time before one of them became deathly ill. Captain Benson was already falling by the wayside. He was barely conscious anymore and whenever he slept, he shouting things as though he was trapped in a never-ending nightmare. He was frightening the children and the only person he allowed near him was Simon. Ralph remembered Jack's suggestion to "get rid of him," and he was ashamed to admit that he had briefly considered that option himself. But it was Captain Benson, not some wounded animal on the side of the road. He was almost like a fellow soldier, and it would be treachery to abandon him.

Even so, Ralph knew that Jack had a point. They had to look out for the rest of the other boys. He couldn't keep each one of them well fed and healthy with a mentally unstable officer to tend to on top of the million other things he had to worry about. But to leave a helpless human being, a man that all of them had once respected, to just wither away and die – that was something Ralph believed no one at the Academy was capable of… At least until now. Something had changed in their division and all of them could feel it, the tension that had been there all along but nobody had taken the time to notice it. Their group was hanging by a thread here on the island, and Ralph felt as though he was the only one who could sense it. One catastrophe and the thread could snap. It was only a matter of time before that happened, only a matter of time before the world as they knew it crumbled.

A moment later and another one of Ralph's worries occupied his mind. Kids had been known to wander off lately and he made sure to make a head count every now and then to make sure no one got lost. Taking into account those on fire, fishing, or hunting duty, Ralph assured himself that all those who remained were wandering up and down the beach, present and accounted for. But one was missing, and for the first time, Ralph realized that he hadn't seen much of her for a while.

"Simon," he called, and Simon stood up from where he sat, tending to Captain Benson's sleeping form, to join him.

"What is it, Ralph?"

"Do you happen to know where Arianna is? She seems to be disappearing a lot lately."

At this, Simon took a long pause, which struck Ralph as odd since Simon almost always had a calm and ready answer. But the boy's face remained neutral and if he had the slightest inkling as to Arianna's whereabouts, he certainly did not show it. Instead, he shrugged, looked indifferently back at his leader and said, "No idea, sir," and went on with his daily activities.

Shortly afterward, Ralph was overcome with yet another worry on the island and the previous thought of Arianna was nearly wiped from his mind completely.

* * *

><p>Jack had to admit that he liked the way her smaller body felt curled up against his own. It was broad daylight and they were crouched strategically behind a collection of boulders on the far side of the island. They had just finished with what was almost coming routine and were now lying beside each other in contentment. They were doing a splendid job playing the part of the loving couple to say the least: Arianna, with her nestled neatly on his chest, and Jack, an arm draped around her shoulders as he dragged his hand idly through her hair. It was another sluggish end to another sluggish morning and all they had to entertain themselves was each other.<p>

"Now it's your turn to tell me a story," piped up Arianna, breaking the comfortable silence that had lain between them.

"What about?" asked Jack, unable to quell the annoyance in his tone. As obnoxious and outspoken as he may be, he generally hated talking about himself. Everyone had walls, and Jack's tended to be taller and more fortified than most. Arianna had walls, certainly, but to Jack hers were glass-thin and transparent. Weak. Rickety. Breakable.

"I don't know," she said with a shrug. "About your home, your family. Anything."

At this, he stiffened. He didn't like how she was asking him personal questions. The more they learned about each other's private lives, the more that whatever was between them became real. Not to mention there was something deeper, something tangible in the way that she clung to him. Everything she did screamed dependence – vulnerability. Arianna was unknowingly revealing to him all the cracks in her walls; she was ultimately given him the key to her own downfall.

"I don't see how that's any of your business," he replied sharply, to which Arianna let out an impatient sigh.

"Well, you can at least tell me what landed you at the Academy in the first place," she persisted. "And don't give me that cock-and-bull story about stealing a car and getting caught by the highway patrol."

"Sorry, Princess, but that's as close to the truth as you're going to get," he told her firmly. If he wanted to be honest, he would tell her that he had been sent to military school to keep him "out of trouble." Out of the way, more like it. It wasn't like his dad and stepmom could fuck each other's brains out with a kid always hanging around the house. Whatever. No matter how much Jack hated his father, he couldn't thank him enough for sending him away. He was stronger because of it – smarter, too. And here he was, on a faraway island with a beautiful girl at his side and all the power in the universe.

"Hmph. You're no fun," Arianna mumbled against his chest, and Jack was relieved that she decided to drop it. She made him think about his father and about home for the first time since they had arrived on the island. With a fleeting pang, Jack wondered if his old man even bothered to look for him.

"I'll show you how fun I can be," he said and kissed her roughly on the lips. It was a tactical maneuver that effectively distracted the both of them from the thoughts hidden inside their heads. Arianna forgot about her questions as she let out a squeal of laughter and tried to get away, only to be pulled down under him. Screw Roger, screw his dad. Arianna was his for the time being and he would savor every minute of it. Whether or not she was aware of it, Jack was using her – but not only for satisfaction. He was using her to forget.

* * *

><p>The following day, Captain Benson was gone without a trace. They all split up in their search for him. Somehow, Arianna wound up in a group with Samneric and Piggy. As they began their trek into the jungle, all she wanted to do was bash her head into the nearest tree trunk. Behind her, the twins were quarreling over something that sounded rather stupid – she couldn't be sure what exactly the fight was about, for they either kept finishing each other's sentences or talking over each other. Piggy, on the other hand, hadn't left her side and was literally talking her ear off. She hadn't the slightest clue what he was talking about, for she had tuned him out a long time ago.<p>

"I'm practically blind without my glasses, you know. My eye doctor said I have astigmatism, which is different than the usual case of bad vision because…"

"You said it was impossible!"

"I did _not_! When have I ever–"

"…And regular nearsightedness is called myopia. Did you know that? Because I didn't until my eye doctor told me. Apparently, myopia has something to do with…"

"Two days ago, when we were–"

"That's a lie!"

"…And there's something else with light and symmetry but I don't really remember. I wish I had a book or something to look it up. Now I'm going to wonder and wonder and wonder…"

"Are you accusing me of lying?"

"What do you think I'm doing, dumbass?"

"…And I'll just keep thinking about it and I won't be able to sleep. Does that ever happen to you? Because…"

"Why I outta–"

"Go on, go on. I can take you!"

"You know what they say about counting sheep? I don't think it works. Scientifically speaking, I would much rather…"

"Please, I'm bigger than you."

"We're the same size, retard."

"…So just plain counting doesn't really help anyone. My mom once said that if you do a little exercise first…"

"Well I can punch better than you."

"Oh yeah? You gonna prove it?"

"EVERYONE JUST SHUT UP!" Arianna screamed, feeling as though her head were about to explode. "I swear if I have to listen to any of you go on for just a moment longer I might as well puke. How the hell do you expect to find Captain Benson when none of us can hear ourselves think? Honestly!"

With that, she turned on her heel and stormed several paces ahead of the boys with a dramatic huff. Thankfully, Piggy didn't attempt to catch up with her and instead lingered behind the twins, who remained a safe distance away.

"Jeez," whispered Sam to his twin, their argument quickly forgotten. "What do you think brought that on?"

"Don't know," replied Eric. "The girl's crazy!"

"And a downright bitch, too. I wonder how Jack puts up with her."

But they hadn't realized that they hadn't been very soft and that in a quiet jungle, whispers carry. Once Arianna had heard Sam's last statement, she stopped dead in her tracks. In one fluid motion, she whipped around and was in their faces in a heartbeat. "What do you just say?" she demanded, her voice low and dangerous.

"I-I don't know what you're talking about," Samneric stammered simultaneously.

"Oh, really," she began sarcastically. "Maybe it was the fact that you just called me a bitch and that you didn't know how Jack puts up with me. What the hell is that supposed to mean anyways?"

"Well, we all know that you and Jack are together now," Eric began, fidgeting uncomfortably.

"Yeah," continued Sam. "A lot of us were talking about it. You do realize how weird it is, don't you?"

"Hang on a moment," Piggy stepped in, looking at her in disbelief. "Since when are you and Jack together? I thought you two hated each other!"

Arianna blinked rapidly and held out her hands to stop them from going on any further. "Wait a minute. Jack and I are _not_ together, okay? At least not in the way that you think. And we do hate each other! But it's just… complicated."

Samneric shared a conspiring grin before asking, "How is it complicated?"

"I don't see how that's any of your business," Arianna replied haughtily. Flipping her hair over her shoulder, she continued through the jungle without another look back. It was partly to avoid answering their questions and partly to hide her flushed face. Truthfully, Arianna wasn't sure where she was with Jack. It wasn't a relationship so much as it was an addiction. He was like a drug and the more she wanted to stop, the more she wanted to be with him. They were addicted to each other in so many ways. It wasn't healthy, but she couldn't even remember when she stopped caring. All she could do was curse him for complicating her life even more. Damn you, Jack, she thought furiously. Damn it all to hell.

* * *

><p>Her heart was pounding in anticipation as she waited for him in the agreed meeting place. It was a quiet, secluded alcove where they certain not to be disturbed – the same alcove where they had first kissed. As she seated herself on a nearby log, Arianna couldn't deny the strange feeling tugging at her subconscious. A feeling of both loss and attachment. This place meant something to her and she couldn't understand why. But Arianna was given little time for contemplation. The weight of a hand had pressed against her shoulder, causing her to jump in surprise.<p>

"Jesus, Jack! You almost gave me a heart attack," she hissed, although she couldn't keep the smile from her face from seeing him. What a contrast it was to her attitude toward Jack just a little over two weeks before, when they first arrived on the island. So much had changed in such a short period of time. Could it be that Arianna was actually delighted to see him?

"You should be more alert next time. Never know what monsters lurk within these trees." His voice was serious but his eyes playful. He stood before her almost in a combative stance, a spear in hand, ready for the next round of their ongoing game to begin.

Arianna rolled her eyes. "Please. The only monsters in this jungle are you and your oh-so-fearsome band of hunters," she mocked, knowing she would touch a nerve. Jack had been promising to catch a pig for several days now, but with little success. She often heard the grumbles; kids were starting to complain about the food and that didn't help Jack one bit.

He frowned slightly, even though he knew she was just playing with him. "I _will _kill a pig. It's only a matter of days now," he insisted.

"Really, now? I'll believe that when I see it," she replied loftily, leaning back on the log to meet his gaze.

"Oh, I'll give you meat, alright," he said, lowering his voice as he stalked lazily toward his prey. Then he leaned down, bringing his mouth just inches from her face as he whispered, "I'll even make you beg for it."

She didn't dare allow herself to jerk back in shock, for she was used to Jack's overtly sexual comments by now. "I never beg," she breathed back, not breaking eye contact for one moment.

He smirked down at her and threw his spear to the ground. "We'll see about that," he stated. And then he pounced, cradling the back of her head with both hands, giving her no other option but to meet him in a bruising kiss. Arianna immediately obliged, engaging his tongue in a battle for dominance that neither of them would win. He tried to pull her to her feet, but she responded by yanking him down to her level. However, both of them miscalculated how much he would have to bend to sit next to her on the log, resulting in the both of them toppling to the ground – all the while never breaking their kiss. They rolled around in the leaves and as usual, Jack ended up on top.

"You're not going to win," he told her, breathing heavily.

"You don't know that," she said between pants. "I'm stronger than you think."

"Still not as strong as me." To prove his point, he seized her wrists, pinning them to the ground on either side of her head. She thrashed her legs and tried to throw him off, but to no avail.

"No fair," she mumbled, abandoning her struggle to throw him off.

"What's not fair? I was stronger that you, so I beat you. Survival of the fittest – that's the way of the jungle," he told her confidently.

"You talk about hunting like it's a game," she pointed out. She couldn't help but laugh, even though she realized she should have been more serious. Whatever. Jack was all talk, anyway. Half of what came out of his mouth was plain and utter bullshit.

"Everything's a game," he replied with an air of nonchalance. "Well, depending on how you look at it." A shift in the mood occurred just then. His eyes darkened as he looked down at her hungrily. Tightening his grip on her wrists, he lowered himself so that he just barely grazed her lips. "Will you beg now, Arianna?" he asked, the playfulness wiped from his eyes. "You're at my mercy. I can do whatever I want to you."

At the feeling of his knee nudging her legs apart, Arianna stiffened. "Jack," she warned, the sudden fear gripping at her throat as alarm bells went off in her head.

"You aren't fighting," he murmured, slowly sliding her dress up her thighs. "It must mean you want this." Inch by inch, the dress traveled farther up, and Arianna had momentarily lost her ability to speak. Too far, he was taking this too far. But why wasn't he getting the message?

"Jack…" Barely a whisper this time, but it was enough to make him pause and rest his forehead against hers.

"How about now, Arianna? Will you beg?" he repeated, although he already knew her answer.

"Don't… Jack… I'm serious," she said, turning her head to the side so she wouldn't have to look at him. Her cheeks grew hot and her heart felt as though it were ready to burst out of her chest.

And just like that, Jack released her wrists and adjusted her dress to its proper position. The moment he climbed off of her, Arianna rolled onto her side and squeezed her eyes shut, hoping it would block out reality. She waited for a few moments – for an apology or even the slightest bit of acknowledgement that he'd overdone it. Nothing. He didn't utter a single word. Soon though, she felt an arm wrap itself around her waist and drag her closer.

"I win this round," he whispered happily in her ear. But to Arianna, the score count no longer mattered.

* * *

><p>Life is like a candle in the wind. Simon had heard this saying a couple times before. He thought he'd understood what it meant but now he knew that he truly hadn't. There were many things he would never understand, at least not entirely. As he sat on the island's sandy shores and stared out into the horizon, he was overcome by the stupefying realization of his own tininess. In comparison to the vast expanse of Planet Earth, Simon was but a speck of dust, whose time here was so short and whose life was so meaningless. But Simon knew that wasn't true, knew that he mattered, knew that time was only what you make of it.<p>

There were many things that outlasted time, things that Simon didn't completely understand. If he closed his eyes and focused only on what he felt, on the tremendous love he had for others, those kinds of things suddenly became clearer. Yes, love – that was it. Simon couldn't remember hating anyone ever in his life. Sure, he'd felt anger and frustration, but those feelings were fleeting and would never compare to his compassion for every form of life he would ever encounter.

His mother told him he was different and he'd always known that. When Simon had asked if she thought he was strange, she only brushed back his hair, smiled, and said, "Yes, Simon, you are a strange boy, but strange only in the sense that there aren't many people like you. That is a wonderful, wonderful thing and you mustn't forget that. There may not be many people like you, but there certainly should be. If more people were like you, I imagine the world would be an even more beautiful place, and a place like that would be something short of paradise."

Simon's heart ached at the thought of his mother, whom he would always consider the most beautiful woman in the world. He longed to run into her arms and stay there, forever guarded from the darkness that plagued the little island. But he shouldn't let the others know how fearful he was of the island. He must be brave, both for his sake and theirs. He must be brave enough to survive and return home, if only to hear his mother's voice just one more time.

"Simon." A female's voice – it could only be Arianna. He looked over his shoulder and was surprised to see her standing behind him. She looked so very still and sad, with her arms wrapped around tightly around herself even though it was scarcely cold.

"Hello, Arianna," he murmured back and gestured for her to sit. It seemed to take her a while to register this and stared blankly down at him for several moments before gracefully plopping herself down beside him. She didn't meet his gaze and instead stared out into the ocean, as Simon had been doing just seconds previously. "What is it?" he asked gently.

She reached over and gently took his hand. "I heard from Ralph that you were upset over Captain Benson. It's not your fault, you know."

"I know that," he answered simply. "But thanks though."

"Should we – I don't know – commemorate him in some way? I mean, I know none of us really knew him that well, but we can probably–"

"Wait," Simon cut across her suddenly. "Commemorate him, as in a funeral?"

Arianna raised her eyebrows, looking rather bemused. "Yes, a funeral, or something like it. Why do you seem so surprised? I'd have thought you'd like the idea. You were the one taking care of him after all."

Simon hesitated. "It's just that… I don't think he's dead. He just disappeared so quickly and if he were truly gone, I'd… Look, it's hard to explain."

He trailed off then and for a long time, there was only silence between them. As they sat together, a small wave pushed over the sand and lapped at their toes. Simon ran his fingers through the foamy water as it ebbed back into the ocean. He wondered how long it would be, before a larger wave swept over the beach to take him far, far away.

"You don't have to have an answer for everything, Simon," Arianna told him softly.

"I know," he answered. "But that doesn't mean we have to stop asking questions."

At this, Arianna faltered, all gentleness gone from her face. Simon could see that her eyes were filled with secrets and worries and questions as she stared back at him, unsure of what to say.

"Do you ever wonder who you really are?" she began, after struggling for several moments. "I mean, we know what we've been trained to do, who we pretend to be. But away from technology and society and the pressures back home, who are we really?" She probably didn't expect Simon to have an answer for her question, so she went on. "I just feel like I've been told how to act and what to think for my entire life and all those _instructions_, all those layers have been building up around me to the point where I don't know who I would be without them. But being stranded here has made me realize that when you peel back all those lies, we're actually simple. And when we free ourselves from all those human complexities, we're no different from the tropical birds that inhabit this island, or the pigs that have become Jack's latest obsession. We're animals, too, but we call ourselves intelligent so we forget that… Am I making any sense?"

Simon paused for several moments to mull over what she had just said before nodded. "Yes, you're making perfect sense, Arianna." He didn't say much else, figuring that there were a lot of things she had been keeping to herself for the past weeks and she needed to talk to someone to make sense of it all.

"So if we're animals," she continued. "Shouldn't we have the same needs, you know, the same instincts? And if one of our instincts is to, well, mate, would that make it wrong?" Arianna blushed horribly then, and Simon finally realized where her anxiety was coming from.

"Have you and Jack… you know," he looked away awkwardly. Just because he was young didn't mean that he was completely clueless about sex. He went to an all-boys school after all and after a couple years, you tend to pick up on things.

"What?" she exclaimed, obviously flustered. "_No!_ Well, not yet. I mean, I think he wants to. God, why am I telling you all of this? You're only, like, eleven, for Christ's sake!"

"I'll be twelve in a month," he offered, knowing it wouldn't make much of a difference.

Arianna sighed helplessly. "Twelve years old… Well, you're mature for your age. I'd say you're ten times more mature than Jack. In that case, we can have a mature conversation, can't we?"

A mature conversation. Simon hadn't had many of those in his life. He was so quiet that he rarely had any kind of conversation with anyone. But Arianna was his friend and she needed him, so he nodded his agreement.

"After fooling around with Jack yesterday, I realized that he might want more from me than I'm willing to give," she explained, the pinkness of her cheeks deepening. "But when I thought about it, I realized that everything goes back to morals and what society expects of us. And… And I'm just tired of abiding with what the rest of society thinks, that's all."

Simon couldn't help but frown. "So you want to sleep with him just to go against someone else's wishes?" It sounded like a foolish reason to him, but he was never one to judge.

"No, that's not why! I mean, I sound stupid and selfish when you put it that way, and maybe I am. It's just so _liberating_ to do what you want without having to take anyone else's opinions into account. You understand, don't you?"

"Are you saying that you want to sleep with Jack?" Simon asked unabashedly. His face was neutral, although he was genuinely worried for her. He was generally good at judging a person's character, and he could see that Arianna was truly good at heart. He didn't know what being with Jack would do to her, if it would change her in any way. But even if she did take his advice in the first place, Simon knew there was little he could do to stop her from seeing him. She was in too deep, and only she had the power to drag herself back out.

Arianna could only sigh and stare out into the horizon before responding. "I didn't think I would ever want to do that, especially not with someone like him. But I'm not so sure of anything anymore."

She looked to Simon for an answer, but he could only shake his head sadly and say, "I can't tell you what's right and wrong, Arianna."

After squeezing his hand, she smiled wearily. "I know, Simon. I know." She looked so lost, and in that moment, Simon was struck by her beauty. In his head, he murmured a silent prayer, telling God to keep her safe and good because he knew that he wouldn't be around long enough to protect her.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** I know, I know... It's been a while. I hope you can forgive me! The end of the school year has been stressful beyond belief. Whatever, I'm a senior now and that's all that matters! So much has been going on. I'm turning seventeen in less than a week. Can you believe it? Anyway, just thought you ought to know. Thank you all for reading and for your lovely reviews! I hope you enjoyed that last chapter and I'll get the next one to you ASAP. Laters!


	7. Chapter 7

++ CHAPTER SEVEN

Screw it.

That was Arianna's first thought when she opened her eyes the following morning. Screw it. She needed to stop dancing around it and face her problems head-on. Today was the day she would confront Jack about where they stood relationship-wise. It had been around two weeks since their little liaison first started. Or maybe it was closer to three? She couldn't be sure; the days here folded so easily into each other that she was starting to lose track of how long they'd been here. It couldn't have been that long, she told herself. Then again, her dress was starting to fade and fray at the edges and everyone else's clothes were in a similar state. She didn't even want to know what her hair looked like at this point. Later, she would bathe and attempt to remove the tangles, although her scalp ached at the very thought of it.

But now was not the time to think about grooming. Arianna had to stick to her objective and settle things with Jack once and for all. The first place she thought to look for him was the by the signal fire. It was still early, so maybe he and the other hunters had just woken up and were rotating shifts. Her palms grew clammy from the nerves as she wove her way through the trees, growing closer and closer to the hilltop. How should she begin? Should she just get down to business or give him a little introduction or what?

Her thoughts were cut short as she saw Jack and a couple of his friends trudge down the hillside, spears in hand. She watched as he led them down, sheathing his hunting knife and carefully tucking it into the waistband of his shorts – only he wasn't wearing any shorts. Arianna's eyes widened as she realized Jack had traded his boxers for a flimsy loincloth that left little to the imagination. She flushed horribly as she tore her gaze away from his thinly veiled manhood and focused on his face – only it wasn't the same face she was used to seeing. She was startled to find that he had painted his cheeks black and red, probably with charcoal and… Goodness, was that blood? Arianna shuddered. Maybe now was not the best time to talk to him.

Before she could turn back, however, Roger spotted her presence. He grinned and gestured widely in her direction. "Look, Jack. I think someone here was a little too impatient to see you."

Arianna couldn't help but glare at the brown-haired boy before having to break eye contact once she realized that he was as sparsely clothed as Jack.

"Didn't get enough of me last time, did you?" Jack called to her, earning several snickers from the pack of boys behind him. Separating himself from them, he jogged down to where she stood, all the way at the foot of the hill. "Look," he began in a mock whisper. "I know how hard it is to keep your hands off of me, but now isn't really a good time. Meet me later and I'll–"

"No, Jack!" she said firmly, rolling her eyes. "I didn't come here to do _that_." She looked away and scratched her neck nervously before sighing in defeat. "Seriously, Jack. Can we just talk, you know, privately?"

"Alright, Arianna, we can talk. But only for a minute." He winked over his shoulder at the boys who were still making their way down the hill. They wolf whistled as he put an arm around her shoulder and led her into the forest for a brief chat. Once they were a far enough distance away, he leaned against the back of a palm tree, crossed his arms in front of his chest, and looked at her pointedly. "Okay, now what do you want to talk about?"

Arianna swallowed and tucked a wayward piece of hair behind her ear as she gathered her thoughts. "I've been thinking…"

"About what?"

"About us," she said and gestured at the distance between them. "About where we stand with each other. Because I don't want one of us to get the wrong idea."

"What do you mean 'wrong idea'?" he demanded, looking confused that she even mentioned something so seemingly obvious. "We're just two people messing around every now and then. Isn't that what you wanted?"

"Well, yes," Arianna started, the blood rushing back into her cheeks. "I certainly thought that's what we were. But the other day, when you... you…" She trailed off, her eyes straying down to the area that his loincloth barely covered. She allowed herself to stare at it for a few moments before keeping her gaze determinedly locked on the ground.

"Are you sure you're okay?" he asked incredulously. "You look like you're about to piss yourself or something."

Clenching her fingers together, she forced herself not to explode at him for being such an insensitive asshole. "Look, Jack. I just want… I needed to…" But she couldn't take it anymore. Through her hands in the air, she released a cry of exasperation. "Seriously, Jack, where the hell are your pants?"

"What?" He sounded confused, but then he looked down to his loincloth and back to Arianna, letting out a laugh. "Oh, the saltwater was making them too stiff and scratchy. I find this much more comfortable, but clearly, you think otherwise." And he raised his eyebrows, obviously amused.

"Of course it makes me uncomfortable, Jack! You're practically…" she choked on the word, too embarrassed to say it.

"Practically what, Arianna? Practically _naked_?" Jack taunted, slowly creeping his way closer. Once he was just inches away from her face, Arianna wrinkled her nose in distaste and angled her body to face away. But she refused to back down, not wanting to show any sign of weakness. "So you still have a bit of prude in you after all," he murmured, running his thumb across her face. He leaned forward, and Arianna's eyes fluttered shut the moment she felt the heat of his mouth on hers. She hummed in contentment as he lowered his lips to graze her jaw line. She barely even noticed when he slipped a hand under the hemline of her skirt, sliding it up her waist until his fingers traced the underwire of her bra. But as she felt his hand inching closer and closer to the clasp in the back, Arianna regained her senses. Her eyes shot all the way open and she pushed him away in disgust.

"Stop that, Jack. I'm warning you," she threatened, wrapping her arms around herself protectively.

"Are you seriously going to forfeit this round over something like that?" Jack said, running his fingers through his blond hair impatiently. This one comment was enough to reignite the anger boiling within her.

"See? _This_ is exactly what I wanted to talk about!" she told him furiously.

"What the hell do you mean?" he demanded. "We're just doing what we want to do. What's wrong with that?"

"Don't you see, Jack?" she asked. "This isn't what I want. All those things you say, about winning and losing and forfeiting – it was fun at first, but now it's like you don't take any of this seriously. And if you can't even do that, then I don't see how this is going to work out."

"Wait," he said, blinking several times before continuing. "Are you saying that you want to stop?"

"No, not at all! I'm just saying that we should take a minute to talk about what kind of relationship we–"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," he interrupted, holding his hands out to stop her from speaking. "Who said anything about a relationship?"

"No one!" she exclaimed, feeling her panic level rising. "I was just thinking that if we want to continue what we're doing, we might as well establish some guidelines."

He scoffed. "Honestly, Arianna, do I seem like the type of guy how follows any sort of guidelines?"

She blushed. "Well, no, but–"

"Then why does it matter?" he nearly bellowed. Breathing heavily, he took her by the shoulders and looked her squarely in the eyes. "We have fun together, don't we?" he asked, as if trying to knock some sense into her.

"I guess we do," Arianna replied truthfully.

"Then why go on and ruin it?"

"But it wouldn't be ruining it!" she retorted with a twinge of irritation. "It would only be making it better."

"How would a set of fucking guidelines make anything better?"

"I don't know! It would make me feel better at least."

"Yeah, but it sure as hell wouldn't make me feel better."

"You don't know that!"

"Neither do you!"

"Well, in any case, you're wrong!" Arianna shot back heatedly. "Do you have any idea what you've been doing to me lately? All the guilt…" She swallowed hard and stepped away. How could she possibly say this to make him understand? "Look, I didn't want to do it like this, but if I can't get any kind of commitment from you, then whatever we have between us has to stop. I can't do it any other way."

And she waited for anger, annoyance – anything. But all Jack did was observe her with a curious expression. Then he chuckled, shaking his head in spite of himself. "That was a smart move you made, Arianna. Really well played."

Her head shot up and she looked at him in confusion. "What in the world are talking about?"

"The emotional, guilt-tripping girlfriend act just there. Didn't even know you had that card up your sleeve," he said, visibly impressed.

Arianna was shocked. "No, Jack, I wasn't pretending. I really–"

He cut her off with a wave of his hand. "Don't worry, I get it. You're trying to psyche me out so I'll back out of the game. That's really clever, actually."

"What game?" she demanded, but Jack was already gathering his spear and heading out of the clearing. She followed him and grabbed his arm, but he shook her off easily.

"The others are waiting, but when I come back from hunting, we can pick up where we left off. Okay?" he wagged his eyebrows suggestively before turning and running deeper into the jungle.

"Hold up, Jack, I wasn't playing. What were you talking about, what game? For God's sake, would you just wait for a second?" she called after his retreating back. But if he heard her, he showed no sign of it. Arianna could only watch as he disappeared into the trees, biting back a frustrated scream.

* * *

><p>She didn't get it. What on earth did she do wrong? She had tried so very hard to be calm and rational about it but it seemed to her that Jack was incapable of having a mature conversation. Of course, she should have anticipated that. Although Jack was starting to look like a man, he was still a boy on the inside. A stupid, arrogant, jerk of a boy who did what he wanted when he wanted and didn't care about anyone other than himself. He had been that way before she got involved with him, and would probably stay that way for a very long time. People change, but not on their own. Perhaps a tiny part of Arianna was hoping she could change him, make him better somehow.<p>

But that wasn't why she agreed to their little dalliance in the first place. She wanted to be reckless. She wanted to take a risk. She wanted to be bad in every sense of the word. Jack had helped her hop the train, but Arianna had not realized he was giving her a one-way ticket. She could feel herself slowing down, but Jack only wanted to go faster. And she was tired and afraid and all she wanted was to turn back and go home. It was then that she realized that freedom is something to be taken in smaller doses, and for the time being, she had had enough.

Just as this thought crossed her mind, Arianna heard shouting from a several yards down the beach. She recognized a few of the boys she saw to be Ralph, Simon, and Piggy. All their heads were tilted skyward, their arms waving frantically. Arianna was confused until she heard the dull whirring of a propeller. Her eyes widened as she jerked her head toward the horizon. Flying not too far from the coast was a lone helicopter. Dumbfounded, Arianna blinked a few times, not sure if it was real. But it _was_ real. She wanted to let out a sob of relief. She could go home – back to normalcy, back to her father. She could leave the island and all her mistakes behind. This helicopter could save them. It could put everything back to how it used to be, but for some reason, it wasn't stopping.

No.

_No!_

Her body went numb as she watched the helicopter get farther and farther away. She opened her mouth to join the others in their screaming but no sound would come out. She could only watch the helicopter as it gradually decreased in size, becoming a mere spot on the horizon. Then it disappeared entirely.

Arianna wanted to throw a tantrum. She wanted to curl into a ball and never wake up. Whoever was piloting that helicopter had to have known there were people on this island. They had to have seen the smoke from the signal fire at the top of the mountain. Unless…

Her heart sunk. Jack and the others must have left their post before the others came to take their place. Heck, he probably took all the others with him that morning. That's just the sort of brainless thing he would do – all for the sake of hunting some stupid pig. He probably hadn't even realized he was jeopardizing their chances of getting rescued. Either that or he simply didn't care. She wanted to slap some sense into him. How could he be so dumb and selfish?

She refused to cry. Tears wouldn't get them any closer to being rescued. At that moment, she could only make herself feel better by punching something, preferably Jack's face. So she set off looking for him around the island. Ten minutes later, she heard his voice, his obnoxious laugh being impossible to miss. It was the part of the beach where they often held their assemblies when she spotted him, a tall, blond head that stuck out over all the others. He was at the center of his rowdy band of hunters – all painted, all dirty, all loud. As she suspected, the boys who often took over the fire duty after Jack were among them. Her eyes scanned the group, which appeared to be celebrating, and landed on the motionless black mass that rested at Jack's feet. She gagged. Was that a dead pig?

Before she could call out to him, Jack already spotted her and jogged toward her, a satisfied smirk already plastered across his face. "I told you I would catch a pig, but you wouldn't believe me," he said in that smug, superior tone of his. "But here it is, Arianna. We'll be eating good tonight, if you know what I mean." Oblivious to her irate expression, he wagged his eyebrows at her and attempted to pull her closer by the waist. With an exasperated huff, Arianna shoved him away and crossed her arms in front of her chest.

"Jesus, Jack! I always knew you were an idiot, but you've seriously outdone yourself this time," she cut at him.

It was a vicious and public attack on his intelligence and Jack could only respond in kind. "Alright, Princess," he began, his voice heavy with sarcasm. "Why don't you tell the Big Bad Wolf where he went wrong now?"

His oh-so-witty comeback earned a few chuckles from those who were listening in on their dispute from a short distance away. Jack quickly glanced at them before turning back to Arianna with a self-satisfied expression as he cocked his head and stared back at her challengingly.

Arianna could only laugh. "Seriously, Jack? It's just like you to turn something like this into an ego trip. I wouldn't look so pleased myself if I'd just jeopardized everyone's chances of getting rescued."

She took a deep breath then and let her words sink in. For a split second there, she could have sworn she saw Jack's face go slack. He stiffened slightly before maintaining his cool. "Would you cut the crap and tell me what the fuck you're talking about?" he snapped at her, all the while looking as casual as he possibly could.

"There was a helicopter, Jack!" she nearly shouted, catching the attention of Jack's hunters. Despite her anger, she noticed how quickly they quieted as she continued her explanation. "It was here, not that long ago. But we had no smoke to signal them and they just flew right over us. They might never come again, Jack. Don't you see what you've done?" Her fury was quickly replaced by desperation as she looked at him, her eyes pleading for him to comprehend.

But Jack fell silent, refusing to meet her gaze. Arianna glanced over his shoulder at the boys behind him. Many of them stood stock still, their faces grave. The dead pig still lay at their feet, momentarily forgotten.

"What did Ralph have to say about this?" Jack asked quietly so that only she could hear him.

Farther down the beach, Arianna spotted a tall, dark-haired figure steadily approaching them. "Why don't you ask him yourself?" she said as Ralph's face came to view. He looked so serious as he marched toward the group. He must have been ready to explode, but he certainly did not show it.

"If you guys hadn't let the goddamn fire go out, they would have seen it," Ralph stated evenly as he reached the group. Arianna couldn't help but be impressed at his ability to contain himself.

"Hey man, we were hunting," Jack said in his defense. Beside him, Arianna rolled her eyes. The damage was done and none of Jack's bullshit excuses could fix it.

Ralph seemed to be thinking the same thing. His normally composed demeanor broke a little as he said, "Face it, Jack. You fucked up! We could have been rescued!"

All this was enough to push Jack over the edge. He immediately shot up and walked right up to Ralph's face. "Back off, man! I'm sick of this shit and so's my gang."

Ralph scoffed, "_Your_ gang? What's that supposed to mean?"

"What it means, _Colonel_, is that if you knew what's good for you, you'd stop trying to run everything," Jack spat out and shoved the chief in the chest, causing Arianna to jump out of the way in shock. Flushing in rage, Ralph shoved him back. Just as she started to think they were getting into a full-fledged fistfight, Piggy threw himself between him, only to be pushed harshly to the ground by Jack. Several people laughed at the fat boy's plight and for once, Arianna truly felt sorry for him, but not sorry enough to rush to his defense. Instead, she looked anxiously between Ralph and Jack, wondering who would make the next move.

"I'm sick of this shit," Jack called out. "I'm gonna start a new camp for hunters and guys who want to have a little fun."

Arianna's eyes widened. Even before the island, she always knew about the tension between the two boys, but she certainly hadn't expected it to get to this level. But to cause a split between the group… That was going too far. Jack couldn't possibly be serious!

"Come on, Jack! This is crazy," Ralph said. "We've got to work together. What do you say?"

But Jack only glared at him venomously. "I say _fuck you_! That goes for you, too, Miss Piggy." To the rest of the boys, he gestured for them to take a hold of the stake to which the dead pig was attached. "Come on. Let's get out of this kindergarten," he stated, and before Arianna could even register what happened, he started leading them away.

As Jack passed her, he looked at her expectantly. "Well?" he said impatiently.

Arianna blinked, confused. "Well, what?"

He rolled his eyes in annoyance. "Are you coming with me or are you staying?"

She swallowed, acutely aware of Ralph's stare boring into her back, and forced herself to meet Jack's stormy gaze. "What do you think?" she snapped, perhaps a little too harshly. They looked at each other for several seconds before Jack took measured steps toward her, closing the distance between them. Arianna's breath caught in her throat as she eyed him incredulously. "What are you–"

But she was cut off by Jack's lips pressing against hers. Her hands automatically jumped to his chest to push him back but for some reason, she couldn't bring herself to. She could feel him lace his fingers through her hair as he kissed her roughly, sending tingles all the way down to her toes. Suddenly, she forgot all about what had just happened and where they were. Good God, why was he so addicting?

Just as she started to deepen the kiss, however, Jack jerked back abruptly, still cradling the back of her head in his hands. She stared up at him questioningly, to which he responded with a predatory grin. His voice dipped an octave as he whispered in her ear, "I'll let you go now, Arianna, but this _isn't_ over."

He gave her a meaningful look before disentangling himself from her and turning to join the other hunters. For a few moments, Arianna watched him walk away, wishing for him to look back. It didn't take her long to sober up and realize how foolish she was being… and that she had just let Jack kiss her for the entire world to see!

_Oh no_.

Nonononono.

How could that have happened? How could she have possibly let that happen?

Closing her eyes, Arianna made herself count to ten before taking a deep breath and turning around to face them. "Ralph," she started shakily. "I can explain."

But Ralph only stared stonily back at her. "How long have you two been together?" he asked tonelessly.

"Not long. And we're not together…exactly," she said lamely. The boys who hadn't run off with Jack were still hanging around the meeting place, gawking at her in shock. But their open-mouthed faces were nothing compared to the chief's look of disapproval.

"I see," Ralph answered tersely.

"N-no!" she sputtered. "It's not like that." Her hands were practically shaking from sheer embarrassment. Granted, it wasn't like she and Jack went out of their way to hide what they were doing anymore. But Arianna hadn't really anticipated that he would announce it to the entire island in such a public and possessive way. She had also been way too wrapped up in Jack to wonder how Ralph would think about it when he found out.

"I'm assuming that whenever you disappeared for hours at a time, you were with him," he said, and how she wanted to disappear right there and then! She only nodded. It wasn't as if she could deny it, at any rate.

At that, Ralph rubbed his face with one hand, shook his head disapprovingly, and sighed. "You know, we've all been hard at work trying to keep everyone together, and to hear that you've been hooking up with Jack all this time… It's not cool, Arianna." Cheeks burning, she kept her eyes locked on her feet as he continued. "Look, I just thought you were above all that stuff. And I know I don't really know you that well, and I probably should have gotten to know you better, but I knew your dad and… I just don't think he would have expected you to be this irresponsible."

"I know, Ralph… I can't explain everything that's going on with me but I'm sorry for it. Really, I am," she said hollowly. As much as Arianna wanted to tell Ralph off for acting like such a mom, she knew that he was right. Plus, he was elected chief and, especially after the day's events, she owed him her respect.

"Apology accepted," he said and even offered her a tiny smile. Arianna burned a little inside. Was it even possible for someone to be so goddamn _good_?

A while later, Arianna busied herself by helping fill empty coconut shells from pool of freshwater and carry it back to camp to make up for her lack of contribution the past few weeks. She also needed something to keep her mind off all the acts of stupidity she'd committed on the island. However, nothing she did was helping. While she was completing this task, Ralph borrowed Piggy's glasses and went up with the twins to relight the fire. Piggy stayed behind; Arianna figured that he was so fat and lazy that he would rather be temporarily blind than climb up the hillside with the other boys. The moment the thought formed in her mind, she immediately took it back. As of that afternoon, Arianna had resolved to be a better, kinder, more productive person.

After her fourth trip from the pool to camp, Arianna took a quick break. Sitting herself down by the opening of one of the shelters, she stretched and pondered about all the ways she could improve herself. This was proving to be rather difficult, especially since Piggy had situated himself inside the shelter nearest to her and resorted to squinting at her from a far. She could feel his beady little eyes watching her every move and it was driving her insane.

Before, she would have whipped around and asked, "Do you mind?" in her haughtiest tone. But because she was trying to be a better person, Arianna calmly turned around and politely asked him if he needed anything.

"I thought you only intended to Jack's needs," Piggy replied loftily, to which Arianna was greatly offended.

"That was entirely uncalled for!" she exclaimed, struggling to maintain her cool.

"But it's the truth," Piggy shot back. "You know, there are a lot of names for girls like you, but I'm not gonna say them."

Swallowing hard, Arianna used all of her strength to fight the urge to slap him. "Look, Piggy. You have every right to be upset and I'm going to try smooth things over with everyone, but I can't do it if this is how you're going to act around me."

"You can start by talking sense into that boyfriend of yours," Piggy stated. "It's his fault that everything's gone wrong and you're the one who's encouraging him."

"_What?_ How is any of this my fault?" she demanded, flabbergasted at his accusations.

"Jack's always been an idiot and a screw up and everyone's always liked Ralph for a leader over him. But now that bad things are starting to happen, like Captain Benson passing and all that with the helicopter, kids are starting to get scared. And Jack's just continuing to be a jerk and yet, he's got this girl hanging over him and making him look good. And even though Ralph's right, he's starting to lose control because kids are now looking to Jack to fix things. So you see, it's not really your fault. You're just part of the problem," Piggy explained as if it was all so simple.

Arianna blinked, still unsure how everything was connected to her. "What do you want me to do then? Through myself at Ralph and that'll make all the other boys come running back?" she said sarcastically.

"No," shrugged Piggy. "Just don't act like a floozy around Jack. That's all."

The way he said it was so passive and nonchalant, and yet it stung her like a slap to the face. She hadn't been all over Jack like he'd said, had she? Then she remembered all the times she'd snuck around with him and all the things she'd let him do. She started to feel sick to her stomach and all she wanted was to get out of there.

Without another word, Arianna got to her feet and walked briskly away from camp, not sure who she was angrier at: Piggy or herself.

"You're not going to him, are you?" Piggy called after her. "Because if you are, that's treason, and treason is the last thing Ralph needs."

But she kept on walking and if anyone noticed, they didn't even try to stop her.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** My sincerest apologies for not updating in eleven months. This year has been so turbulent and bizarre...I can't even put it to words. So after eleven months of emotional outbursts and overwhelming self-growth, I have finally returned to finish this story. I have all you reviewers to thank for keeping me going. You've been wonderfully patient and supportive and I hope you haven't given up on me! If you're still there, please continue to read and review. Just know that I am determined to finish what I started.


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